Engineering! Engineering! And Engineering!
There was a day when B.Sc. was taken as a simple graduation course and engineers were touching the sky. But by the course of time things changed, and now engineering has been reduced to a graduation course. People are getting into diverse fields after their engineering. The reason may be-
Shortage of engineering jobs.
The education they are receiving is not up to the level in this competitive world.
Or Graduates have started following their passions and interests, rather than running with the crowd.
But the possibility of No.1 and No. 2 is pretty higher than the No.3. The third point shows the evolution and is really a sign of improvement. But the first and second points need to be solved.
Why is there a shortage?
The answer is so simple. The rate of new jobs introduced in the market is very low in comparison with production of new engineers in India. Secondly the colleges are more concerned about Business and Status of college than being concerned about focusing on quality of teachers and other inputs.
Private Colleges/Universities are taking students beyond their intake capacity (especially through donation quota), so here arises a situation of sharing. Students have to share everything from benches to lab apparatus. So definitely the quality has to go down.
Another issue with engineering in India is its syllabus, education system, poor faculties and infrastructure, and of course the governing bodies. If you go deep you will see the engineering education system/syllabus in India is much more theory based. Improvement of practical knowledge is not addressed in colleges. This is one of the vital reasons that we are incapable of producing quality engineers. If we take the scene of faculties in engineering colleges then we may observe that these are by-products of a failed education system.
Except a few, maximum teaching faculties are inexperienced with inadequate qualifications. Many students join the same college where they graduated from as faculty after their engineering just because they did not get any other job. So they are in the teaching profession not by choice. How can a person execute efficiently when he/she is not made for it? Here we can’t blame the students and question their capabilities. Of course they are capable of making dreams into realities. But the question is “How did they fail to do so?” The good students easily get a quality job of their choice after the course. And very few among them choose education field as profession, so a lot of vacancies float in this field and someone has to take these places. Hence, the students who are poor in studies have to fill these places no matter what their aim or goal is! In this scenario the opening of new Engineering colleges/universities in India needs to be halted. Lately, everybody understands this concern and a good decision has been taken by AICTE that it will not approve any new engineering colleges from the academic year 2013-14, after it was inundated with demands from several State Governments.
But the problems do not end here. The system has already created much unemployment and the education quality has significantly gone down. It will not be so easy to find the solutions but we can’t waste time in only planning. First step was that no new colleges from 2013-2014 will be taken in by AICTE, something we should appreciate. Now we need to address the education quality and filling up of the vacancies. The scene behind the screen should be taken to the public and a general awareness should be created. It will help the parents and students to plan their future in a better way. The word has to spread and reach every ear. Sooner or later it will catch attention and leaders will definitely come forward to join the march. We will be able to drive potential candidates into the teaching field. Once young talented graduates and post graduates start joining the colleges across India, the other problems will be solved gradually. To produce quality engineers we need to feed the coming students efficiently and for that we need a strong base of teachers across India. Finally, the government has to wake up. It has to take necessary steps to recruit more number of qualified teachers, fill up the vacancies and give them importance.
Problems are endless, but that does not mean we keep on ignoring them.