Electronics, computer science being revamped

The final printed syllabus, is expected to be out by mid of next year and will be circulated as standard study material to all the universities, engineering and technical institutes in the country.

The Rs 100 million 8220;learning materials project8221; has been mainly funded by the Agencies for Swiss Development Corporation ASDC. The new learning material, to be made available in the form of text and reference books, will will cover the latest developments in the concerned fields.

ISTE programme director Dr K P P Pillai, who was in Pune recently to attend the western zone convention of the society, told this paper that 8220;all the universities in the country are teaching the oudated syllabus to their students in these technical subjects, the study material for which need to be updated regulary given the rapid advancements occuring in these fields8221;.

The books will be two types with one covering the standard syllabus suggested AICTE and the second touching upon the frontries areas of the various universities.

In the first phase of the programme, ISTE will identify expert authors in respective subjects within the country. 8220;Through our newsletter we have invited applications from the experts whose services will be sought for preparing the learning material,8221; said Pillai.

The applications will come up before the screening committee comprising representatives from ISTE, AICTE and techinical experts from ASDC. The committee will allocate the selected authors the portion of the syllabus to be written by them.

While on one hand the emphasis in being laid on revitalising the content of the technical courses, at the same time areas such as presentation quality and absorptive factor of the contents is also being worked upon.8220;A steering body comprising experts from the Swiss funding agency, ISTE and AICTE will strictly monitor the quality of content of the learning material,8221; Pillai said.

He said that the course material, with assistance from AICTE will be circulated to all universities and major technical institutes as standard syllabus learning material.After completion of the arduous task of bringing out the next text and reference books, ISTE also plans to regulary update the syllabus. 8220;The learning material will be updated once in every three years to accommodate new concepts, topics and subjects depending on the developments occurred,8221; Pillai added.