[Points: What it means—it's importance—backwardness of India—measures taken since Independence—need of practical training—future.]
Education may be divided into two classes-general or liberal and technical. General education aims at filling the mind with general knowledge of arts and sciences. The latter aims at giving specialised training in some particular branch of applied science, such as engineering, medicine, tanning, spinning, etc.
The prosperity of a country depends on her industry, and industry again depends on technical knowledge. There are some countries that are poor in raw materials; still they have achieved prosperity through industries by virtue of their technical knowledge. On the contrary there are countries that have remained poor in spite of their natural resources. This is because the people have not been able to make proper use of their wealth for want of technical knowledge. The case of our own country India is a glaring example of this. In fact, the most prosperous countries are those that have advanced in technical education. Russia, the U.S.A., Great Britain, and Germany are very good examples of this. In these countries greater attention is paid to technical education than to education of a general kind.
When the British conquered India, they required a body of men with sufficient general knowledge to help them in running the administration. So, they introduced a system of education that produced only clerks, administrators and lawyers, in course of time they were compelled by force of circumstances to open a few technical institutions here and there. But they were too few to be of much help towards the prosperity of the nation.
It is after independence that our Government has taken up the question in right earnest. They know that industrial development requires a large number of properly trained men. So they have set up an all India Council for Technical Education to develop technical education in a planned way. During the last few years several well equipped technological institutions and laboratories in different parts of the country have grown up. Many technical schools have been opened for award of diplomas and certificates. Still there is need for more such institutions for a large supply of trained men. Our Government is quite alive to the problem and provision has been made for this purpose.
But the success of technical education depends a good deal on practical training. So the theoretical knowledge gained in schools and colleges should be coordinated with practical experience in firms and factories, and the curricula should be drawn up in consultation with men engaged in them. Unfortunately we are lagging behind in these respects, and the sooner this defect is remedied, the better it is for the country and its people.
