The Hindu : Kerala News : Should there be more seats for Engineering ?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 24, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Should there be more seats for Engineering ?

<36,4,,,,,,1>With the heat of entrance examinations for various professional courses and the anxiety about the rankings got subsided with the publication of the results, parents and students are frantically seeking advices from all available sources regarding the chances of admission to the preferred courses in Engineering and other professional courses. Large number of aspiring students and parents are attending the precounseling sessions organized by various agencies at different parts of the state and a host of questions are raised by them to clarify their doubts on various aspects of admission possibilities. Side by side with this one question which many people are asking is the scope of employment for over 22000 students presently admitted to nearly 86 Engineering Colleges in Kerala, distributed under government or self financing sector. Even the decision making authorities at the government level have expressed whether we require this much of Engineering colleges in the state and have even gone to the extent of entrusting a commission to study and report on this matter. The apprehension by the public may appear to be reasonable but there is the other side of the coin as well.In our state every year nearly three lakhs students are passing out from the 10th standard and enter the higher secondary level. Of this 60% are passing out from the plus two level, making a total of two lakhs students qualified for degree level higher studies. With 22000 seats for Engineering courses, which forms nearly 10% of the total student population qualified for degree level studies, the question arises as to whether this is a large percentage and should there not be at least this much of opportunity to the aspiring youth?At the national level the total intake for Engineering is about four lakhs. In a country like ours which is rated as the second largest in the world with regard to trained and highly skilled manpower, with good analytical and problem solving abilities, it can be estimated that at least two crores of our population enter the college going age band every year. Thus at the national level also only a small percentage of eligible students are offered opportunity for degree level education in Engineering.Regarding the job opportunities, it is increasing every year, but presently focused towards the service sector with a steady shift from the labour intensive towards knowledge based industries and jobs. Ten years back we have not even dreamt of a Technopark in Trivandrum or the IT hubs at Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai; large outsourcing by developed countries in software field and even in the manufacturing sector; the ever increasing hitech automobile population flooding the Indian roads; the PCs and peripherals forming a household necessity; advanced and powerful wireless communication and entertainment facilities used even by the common man, which are some of the areas where job opportunities for the right candidates are increasing. Of course pedigree and patronage do not matter but performance and promise do.The real question today is whether our graduates are equipped to take up the challenges and follow the technological advancement? Are our universities and centers of learning offer quality education with the curriculum tailored to meet the flexibility and challenges? The regulatory authorities should provide maximum opportunities to our youth but without compromising on the quality of education. The students and the parents should realize their responsibilities and take up studies seriously rather than whiling away their precious time . The Universities, rather than merely remaining as examining universities, should act as a facilitator to develop and promote the colleges under its affiliation so as to bring out employable graduates having good knowledge with creative and innovative mind and aptitude so as to enrich our human resources and meet the challenges.

Dr.P.Krishnamoorthy Iyer Former Principal

College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram

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