The SITTTR is the only centre of its kind established
by the State government of Kerala under the Technical Education department with
the aim of promoting Technician Education. It is situated in its own campus at Kalamassery
in Ernakulam district, and continues to function as the flagship centre in this
arena.
The center started functioning in 1990 mainly catering to the needs of Polytechnic
Education in the state. At the time of its inception there were only 3 Polytechnics
in the state. As the importance of Technician Education was recognized the world
over, the felt need of producing world class diploma holders become important and
urgent. The infrastructural development of Polytechnics up gradation of curriculum
became inevitable. Thus regular curriculum revision, its effective implementation,
the associated training of educators, academic monitoring, development of learning
materials & lab manuals became essential functions of the curriculum development
center. Gradually as the National skill development mission, MHRD and other departments
and agencies started focusing their attention on increasing technicians and skilled
manpower in the country, the mandate of the of the Centre also expanded to other
aspects of developing Skilled Technicians in the State.
SITTTR extended its operations to other Institutions such as Government Commercial
Institutes (GCI), Government Fashion Design Institutes, Technical High Schools (THS)
Institutes offering Certificate courses such as Fire and Safety, Printing Technology
and so on. The Curriculum development, training related to its implementations of
these Institutions and framing of rules and regulations as per the changed scenario
in the Technical education sector had to be taken up by the SITTTR.
The increase in the number of applicants in the state for Polytechnics [1,30,000
against the 12,500 seats available] forced the Department of Technical Education
to consider conducting the admission process in an online manner which would make
the process effective and transparent. Consequently a web-based, online system was
developed indigenously by a staff member from within the Polytechnic community itself.
The program developed could be replicated for other departments as well.
The activities of the SITTTR include:
- Revise the curricula of the existing diploma
and certificate programmes periodically on a scientific basis as per the technological
advancements and responding to the latest market requirements.
- Organize Faculty
development programmes including Content Updating Training, Life Skill Training,
Professional Management Development Training and Hands-on Skill Development Training
for the faculty of the 49 Polytechnics in the state.
- Conduct the Academic Monitoring
of 43 Govt. and 6 aided Polytechnics in the state through curriculum implementation
and assessment norms.
- Conduct Faculty development programmes for the 19 Govt.
Commercial Institutes, 10 FDGT Centers and 39 Technical High Schools.
- Conduct
Admission for over 10,000 seats in 49 Polytechnics in an online web – based manner.
The software for the same was developed indigenously at the CDC by a faculty from
the Polytechnic. On-line admission for the Part-time Diploma (evening) is under
consideration.
- Conduct feasibility studies on starting new Polytechnics in the
Govt. sector.
- Develop Lab manuals, learning resource materials for effective
teaching learning process.
- Support the JCTE by developing Question papers and
Model question papers.
- Identify Equivalence to the programmes offered by other
Organizations.
