Vocational education in India – Quality vs. Quantity

At the institution I work we have a training hotel for students of some of our courses. The clientele includes corporates, educational institutions, professional bodies like CII, AICTE etc.. One of the leading IIM decided to book our seminar rooms facility as Mumbai center for post-CAT GDs and Interviews and guest rooms for the professors eight years back. Other IIMs followed. Basically it was due to word-of-mouth publicity as IIM educators is a small community. Then private Management institutes followed. This was a result of recommendation of the superannuating faculty joining private institutions. So our management educational institutions market segment grew rapidly. Result is that this year we have back-to-back  as well as overlapping guest room  and seminar room bookings of IIMs & pvt. Institutes from Mid-February to Mid-April. There are new IIMs and IITs being added to our client list each year. There are so many national level institutes being set up in recent years. We are seeing the impact right here at our training hotel.

However, the question being asked is about the usefulness of such an exercise. The issue is of Quality vs. Quantity. More IIMs, IITs, IIITs, NITs, NIFTs, IHMs, AIIMs, Central Universities, World class universities (new category), engineering colleges etc. are welcome but do they deliver quality or just churn out graduates of poor quality. We now have 13 IIMs, 16 IITs, 6 IIITs (20 in pipeline), 30 NITs, 15 NIFTs, 51 IHMs, 7 AIIMs, 16 new Central Universities, 14 new World class universities (new category).  India is now home to 3,393 engineering colleges that have 14.86 lakhs seats; today there are 3,900 management schools with a total student intake of 3.5 lakh. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh have about 70% tech institutes. When admissions closed last year, AICTE estimated that nearly three lakh seats were unfilled. Maharashtra has a rich pool of 348 engineering institutes and 408 MBA colleges. And the fact that 34,000 seats did not have any takers last year did not play spoilsport. However, the edupreneurs (education entrepreneurs) from Maharashtra are bullish on the growth This year  AICTE received 30 applications to start engineering colleges and 15 for MBA institutes from Maharashtra. State Governments such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra told the AICTE to not to clear proposals for new institutes. AICTE may bar new engineering, management colleges from 2014.

On the other hand top B-schools across the country are set to hike their intake this year or the next. SP Jain Institute-Mumbai, plans to increase intake from 180 to 240, Sydenham Institute of Management-Mumbai from 60 to 120, XLRI – Jamshedpur 240 to 360.  ISB- Hyderabad has 570 seats, will have a new campus in Mohali with 200 seats. While there still is a huge gap between demand and supply in good schools, a large number of seats remain vacant in many institutes as they lack basic infrastructure and good teachers. Faculty Demand Supply situation remains lop sided. Issues relating to compensation package hamper the situation. Last year the country saw rising friction between IIT / IIM profs. with HRD Ministry over pay and autonomy. In the first week of the this year NIFT organized an interaction with the fashion industry. All big wigs from Ministry of Textiles and industry discussed quality issue. Opinions expressed indicated that rapid expansion of NIFTs has been at the cost of quality expected of them – main culprit being shortage of good faculty. Same is the fate of other streams. Recently many industry leaders have opined negatively about “employable” graduates coming out of IITs/IIMs etc.

India’s growth story will need many more professionals. We need to create a mechanism by which there is a continuous availability of faculty across the country. There is need for Faculty development, training the teachers, adequate compensation package and continuous interaction between institutions and stakeholders for quality improvement.

Interesting  signages during travels

I came across some interesting displays during my travels.Few samples which were captured on camera are here.

Pattaya

This is on a beach front road which has many eateries. It was kept outside on the walkway next to the entrance of a restaurant. I suppose the establishment was targeting a very specific demographic segment of customers. In F&B S or Nutrition classes in IHMs we never taught this kind of special menu or diet.

Pizza Hawaaiian – ham, mushroom,  sausage &  pineapple * Pizza Seafood  * Mango with sticky rice

Pizza Hot American  *  Pizza Fried Minced Pork with basil leave & chili * Plain Mango

Phuket

Hard Rock Café in restricts entry of WMD and Drugs. The town  is world famous for drugs, sleaze  and prostitution. Never came across any SOP manual on how to deal with a customer who decides to come in with a nuclear weapon.



Gokarna, Karnataka

Outside the famous Mahabaleshwara temple this little snack shack the menu includes Brack-fast, Milk Sheks but the interesting  item was under the Sopt -Drinks  namely Dadar Lassi. Since I spent 12 years in Dadar and am still living in heart of Dadar between Shiavji Park and Siddhi Vinayak temple, this one was a bit intriguing (Dadar + Lassi = ???) so I ordered one. It turned out to be just a regular Lassi. Will not be surprised to find a Karol Bagh Nimbu Pani near Mahabalipuram Shore Temple.

Old Goa

This one is inside a Wax Museum owned by a private entity near Basilica Bom Jesus, Goa . Interestingly one of the exhibit is a wax statue of Veerappan.

Baijnath, Uttrakhand

In the precincts of ancient Mahadev temple.

Yana Rock Formation, Karnataka

At the entrance of Bhasmasur Rock, Yana this sign board in middle of the thick jungle reads – “Wines and chickens are prohibited. Dangar with honeybee. Keep quite. Cooking and campfire in this plase is prohibited.”

Melaka, Malaysia (Malacca)

An epitaph in St Francis Xavier’s Church built in 1856 located on Jalan Laksamana, Malacca. Free citizen ????

Shankracharya Math, Karnataka

On the wall of a math en route Sirsi – Jog Falls.

Port Dickson, Malaysia

Port Dickson or PD to locals is a beach and holiday destination situated about 90 km from Kuala Lumpur. Thi sign on the wall of a change room reads “Boy 1 Ringgit Girl Ringgit” i.e. Ladies & Gents PD style .

Phuket, Thailand

On the shopping area street in evening .

Famous Calangute beach Goa

Action on the beach – tourist attraction

This is my first blog – it is short and crisp. It describes the kind of things which will appear in the blog in near future and in long run. Basically for next one year or so this blog will revolve around my interest in Awadh cuisine, my travels, my acquaintances, food in general and other interesting things or events. On professional  matters relating to hospitality education and industry, however,  I will write blogs after my superannuation which is likely to happen in mid-2013 year as it sounds a bit unethical when one is in active Govt. employment.

Well to start with the Awadh cuisine :

I have co-authored with Sangeeta Bhatnagar a coffee table treatise on Awadh cuisine ‘Dastarkhwan-e-Awadh – The cuisine of Lucknow’ (published by Harper Collins (India) & India Today Group -first edition in the year 1998, second edition in the year 2006). It costs Rs. 395 in India and US$19.95 in other countries. To get a feel visit http://saxenark.tripod.com/awadh.html  The portal also has few traditional recipes – both veg. and non-veg. like Kakori Kabab, Murg Mussalam, Nimona etc.. Any discussion on the Awadh cuisine is welcome.

Kakori Kabab

Before  I begin with my travel blogs I would like to mention here that my son-in-law Prashant (Almora Boy) is a Uttrakhand trek freak and blogs extensively on http://almoraboy.blogspot.in/2006/09/travel-diary-on-uttarakhand-himalayas.html   Any one who is trekking in that region must read the blog. It has minute details and some excellent photographs.

My recent reading included “Lucknow Boy -  A memoir” by Vinod Mehta. I am myself a Lucknow Boy therefore was looking forward to reading this book. The book had the first chapter about the city life style during Mehta’s young days and the rest, more or less, was about how and why Mr. Mehta went about changing jobs for different reasons. There are some unkind words for few individuals. One of them is Ms. Shobha De'. About a  week back  review of the book was done in a leading publication by Ms. De'. Wherein she reciprocated the sentiment and wrote not-so-many-good-things about the book. It sounds like a full circle.

I thought it is high time that I create my own blog.