Technical Education

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 specialized training in some particular branch of applied science, such as engineering, medicine, 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 row 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. India is a glaring example of this. In fact, the most prosperous countries are those that have advanced in technical knowledge. Russia, the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany and Japan are very good example of this. In this countries greater attention is paid to technical education than to education of general kind.

When the British conquered India, the required a body of men with sufficient 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 they were compelled by force of circumstances to open a few technical institutions here and there. But they were too few to be much of 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 the Indian government set up an all India Council for Technical Education to develop technical education in planned way. Also at the same time, Pakistan  Government took a few steps to established technical education in Bangladesh (the then east Pakistan). After independence, the Government of Bangladesh established some institutes for technical education. Many technical schools have opened for award of diploma and certificates. For large supply of well-trained men power the government should establish more technical institutes and applied science universities. But the success of technical education depends on a good practical training. So the technical 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 this respects, and the sooner this defect is remedied, the better it is for the country and its people.