I addressed the newly admitted engineering students of RIST(Regional Institute of Science & Technology) of University of Science & Technology, Meghalaya, yesterday as a Resource Person in the Orientation Program—2025 for B. Tech students. The topic given to me to speak on was “The essentials of quality teaching and learning for engineering students”.
IMAGE 1: A FEW PHOTOS RELATING TO THE ORIENTATION PROGRAMME
A note was prepared on the salient points dealt with in my speech and the same was distributed among the freshers with the objective of facilitating an appreciable understanding on the part of the students, in fact, just before I stood to speak on the topic. The note, so given appears below:
Points for my lecture as a Resource Person in Orientation Program for the Fresh Students in RIST, July 21, 2025
First Point: The topic given is—-Essentials of quality teaching and learning for engineering students. I have decided to confine myself to the different aspects of learning process alone, since I am delivering my lecture in the orientation program meant for the students alone, not for the teachers.
Second Point: Dear Incoming Students, I will deal with some salient aspects of learning process in engineering students only. There is a strong Faculty Team waiting to take you through the learning process during the coming four years ahead of you with all the necessary infrastructural facilities being adequately developed in this institute. I feel proud to have been involved at a certain stage in developing these facilities. It is truly dependent on your attitude and aptitude how you take yourself through the well-set learning process existing in this institute. An ideal environment, as you see physically has been created for your benefit by the management of the USTM
Third Point: I will, therefore try to deal with some of the important factors bearing on your attitude and aptitude for the purpose for which you have landed in this institute. As far as your aptitude is concerned, I am sure you all have the same in variable measures, since you all have succeeded in getting admitted to the institute in conformity with the set norms of AICTE. This implies that you all are capable of taking yourself through the learning process to be conducted by the strong faculty teams available with the management. In other words, you all have the Aptitude, as necessary.
Fourth Point: However, what counts most in the pursuit of a learning process is the Attitude. There have been various studies on the impacts of both Aptitude and Attitude in the life of a human being. According to a study, the Attitude counts 80%, while Aptitude counts only 20% in the achievement of success in life. I fully endorse this observation, since I myself have many cases of this type even as a teacher. For an example, I can cite a specific case of an ex- student of mine from RIST only. When I met him first, one day I asked him—what’s your name? He failed to answer in English and politely sought my permission to answer in Assamese. I started encouraging him to try to speak in English, whenever I used to meet him. From the 3rd semester, I used to meet him in class rooms till the final semester. I was surprised to see his development gradually from the 3rd semester to the end. Now he is doing very well in his professional life as an engineer. He was a student of low- level of Aptitude, but he did have a very strong attitude. I, therefore lay tremendous emphasis on the development of a strong positive attitude to do everything in life. You must try to get rid of negative attitude in life—-never think, you can’t do this, that etc.
Fifth point: This relates to employability aspects of fresh graduate engineers in India. I have devoted a lot of time in a detailed study of this fact. I will not go for a detailed discussion on this aspect now. But I want to touch upon a few salient points bearing on the high rate of unemployability even to the extent of 70 t0 80 percent today for the fresh engineers in India. The basic reasons to a situation of this type may be attributed to the lack of basic understanding of basic principles of engineering in the relevant discipline and the skill required to apply the basic principles to find the solution of different engineering issues. In view of this situation of the day, I urge upon the students to pursue the learning process during these four years through dedication and regular studies.
Sixth Point: The engineering profession is a tough one particularly in view of today’s scenario—-may it be in the industry or in the academic institution. Therefore, the students must develop the culture of hard-work with regularity, dedication and ethical values. I used to tell my students very often—-Hard work does not mean that you have to curtail your time required for relaxation and rest. We have 24 hours a day, you have to culture the habit of devoting at least 8 to 10 hours per day for your studies. Even then, you are left with 14 to 16 hours per day for other activities such as sleeping, eating, gossiping, playing etc.
Seventh Point: I come to the last point now. My dear students, you develop the culture of sincerely abiding by the standard norms well set by the management. Do your duties such as attending your classes regularly, submit your assignments regularly, take your tests regularly. You have got to understand the ideas with which these norms are set by persons highly experienced in technical education. These are aimed at infusing in you the culture of deeply understanding the basic principles of engineering along with the practice of how the said principles are applied for solving different issues/problems. Please note that in engineering education, about 40% of the total marks are allotted for internal assessment based on your class attendance, submission of assignments, your performance of class tests etc. There is a standard set- norms for evaluation of internal marks. In fact, internal marks are earned by you—not given by teachers, as very well implied by the set norms of evaluation. I am sure, you will be explained at departmental level about the details of evaluation-norms.
Concluding Remarks—–
Finally, I thank you, my dear students and your parent/guardians for choosing this institute for getting yourself taught and trained as a capable technical person for joining the highly acclaimed profession of an engineer. My best wishes and blessings are there for you all.
I thank the management for giving me the scope for addressing this orientation program.
THANK YOU ALL.
I have decided to post this brief note in my blog basically for the reason that the viewers of this blog (with the link of—constructiontribune.wordpress.com) include a substantial number of budding and fresh engineers. Those viewers may derive some benefits from this post.
