Physics, Chemistry and Maths important but not compulsory for certain engineering courses: AICTE
New Delhi, Mar 12: Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics will continue to be important subjects in engineering courses and it is not mandatory for state government or institutions to offer these courses to students who have not studied them in class 12, the AICTE said on Friday.
Addressing a press conference, AICTE chairperson Anil Sahasrabudhe also said students opting for streams like Biotechnology, Textile or Agriculture Engineering will have an option to not study these subjects in class 12.
The clarification by Sahasrabudhe came following news reports about Physics and Mathematics no longer being compulsory for studying engineering as per the approval handbook for 2021-22 issued by the AICTE.
"Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics will continue to be important subjects for certain streams of engineering like mechanical engineering, it's not that these subjects will lose their relevance. However, for streams like Textile Engineering, Agriculture or may be Biotechnology, students will have an option of not studying the three subjects compulsorily in class 12 and make up for them through bridge courses later," Sahasrabudhe said.
In its revised rules aligned as per reforms proposed in the new National Education Policy (NEP), the technical regulator has given a list of 14 subjects - Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electronics, Information Technology, Biology, Informatics Practices, Biotechnology, Technical Vocational subject, Engineering Graphics, Business Studies, Entrepreneurship.
Students need to pass in any three subjects (from the list) with a minimum of 45 per cent marks in class 12 board examination to be able to apply for admission in undergraduate courses in engineering, according to the revised rules of the All India Council for Technical Education.
"Universities will offer suitable bridge courses such as Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Drawing, for students coming from diverse backgrounds to achieve desired learning outcome of the programme," the AICTE provides in the Approval Process Handbook 2021-22.
According to Sahasrabudhe, the new Approval Process Handbook 2021-22 has been changed to remove the restrictions of the previous rules incase there are states or universities that want to open up "on the lines of the NEP".
"There was a very classic case which came up this year during admission into an Agricultural Engineering or Agricultural Technology course where Physics, Chemistry and Maths (PCM) are mandatory. Now, in open schooling and the CBSE there are subjects like Agricultural Chemistry. However, these institutes are only accepting pure chemistry," said Sahasrabudhe, while highlighting the importance of multidisciplinary approach.
However, the chairperson reiterated that it is not mandatory for states or institutions to change their current mandatory preference of PCM for admission to engineering courses.
"While opening up the window, it is not mandatory to any of the states or universities that they must admit students from any of the three courses or 10 or 12 have listed there.
"Universities and the state governments may continue to have the same three subjects of Maths, Physics and Chemistry, as mandatory. This is purely a window of opportunity which is open, but not restricting, or forcing or making it mandatory that any three subjects can and should be allowed," said Sahasrabudhe.
On offering engineering courses in mother tongue, the AICTE cited its survey recently where 42 per cent of the current second, third and fourth year engineering students said that they would prefer to pursue their course in mother tongue had there been an opportunity.
"No one is being forced. This is an opportunity created and not being imposed. We have this misgiving that we all have to do our engineering in our mother tongue. But also think of those who wanted to pursue in their mother tongue have deprived them of this opportunity till now? We conducted a survey on students who are already in second, third and fourth year. They have already learnt their science subjects in English.
"And, it is not the Hindi speaking students, but majority students from Tamil Nadu said had they got an opportunity they would have studied in Tamil. Second was in Hindi, third was Telugu, fourth was Marathi and fifth was Kannada," he stated.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
