Re-engineering the Engineering

Re-engineering the Engineering

India has one of the largest numbers of engineers in the world…sounds better and vibrating statement to hear for all Indians. Proud but reality is a myth.

In total engineering colleges 6,214, 2.9 million students are enrolled every year, on average 1.05 million get their degree, due to lack of skills only 20% get employment in their core domain. This is a huge loss in terms of manpower and economy. As the world is moving very fast, we need to fix the skills set of our engineering graduates quickly to beat per with the world's best countries.

The government is trying to address this problem by implementing outcome-based education (OBE) system in all technical colleges and universities in India. Here OBE is a student-centric instruction model that focuses on measuring student performance through outcomes.

Let us take a glance at different categories of Engineering Colleges in India

Tier– 1	Includes all IITs, NITs, IIITs
Tier – 2	Top Ranked Pvt institutions and all other state-sponsored Govt Engineering colleges (JNTUA, BIT, SRM, etc)
Tier – 3	It includes all those remaining colleges which are private institutions but are not categorized separately (all local Engineering colleges)

 

In India, a student often considered making three mistakes in their life. First, they are very good at studies, they are good at math, and after making the first two mistakes they choose engineering as the only option.

Students fall into three different categories based on how they choose to engineer.

·         The first category of students chooses Engineering as a passion.

·         Second, unwillingly make it their passion due to force from their parents & society.

·         There is another special category that chooses to engineer to become a credible player in the shadi market of India so that they can get a heavy amount of dowry during their weddings (Lot of consultants helping this category for settling in other countries to create a foreign image).

But always we can't blame the students and their responsibility because responsibility without accountability is like a car without steering. The blind belief of common parents in India that Engineering is job oriented course, meaning anyone who studies in this field is directly placed in various companies after course completion. But today it is quite opposite.

Andhrapradesh Case:

A recent survey conducted by Pearson India revealed that 70% of the students in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were not employable. Though the survey does not take anyone by surprise, it allows us to reflect upon our dying education system.

Former leaders of combined Andhra Pradesh convinced Bill Gates to set up Microsoft in Hyderabad, which completely changed the face of AP. It was a huge achievement because Bangalore had already grown into an IT hub by then.  As a part of creating the IT ecosystem, earlier governments make it relatively easy for people to set up engineering colleges. Then the number of engineering colleges surprisingly increased from 20 to 220. Eventually, the state government pressurizes the center to get permission for establishing new engineering colleges since the whole process was under the center's purview. Leaders fight with the central regulatory authority, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to ease up rules.

 Once the engineering colleges started adding up, and the IT industry started coming in, it created an enormous interest in the people of the state to take up an engineering course. This created a huge demand for junior colleges offering Engineering, Agriculture, and Medical Common Entrance Test (EAMCET) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) oriented coaching. To cater to the demand, a lot of corporate junior colleges started mushrooming. The state government eased the rules a bit in this area, but mostly bribing would work in overcoming regulations.

Once colleges were established, there was intense competition between these colleges. This created an extraordinary phenomenon, wherein, these junior colleges would investigate for the best talent in the state and compete to enroll them in their colleges; in the hope that if properly coached they would secure good ranks in EAMCET, and increase the college's reputation. So they would offer concessions ranging from 25% to 100% on college fees depending on the student's score in the 10th standard. A student whether rich or poor if he had scored over 90% in his 10th standard would be eligible for free quality education (including boarding).

            In 2008, the congress government introduced a Fee reimbursement scheme for engineering students' in other words government-sponsored scholarships. Since the government was paying the fee, everyone started enrolling in engineering courses whether they were worthy of it or not. Because of this inflated demand, new colleges started cropping up just to encash this phenomenon without any real intention to provide education.

Since there was a cap on the fees colleges can charge, existing colleges had no incentive to improve the quality. Even as the standards started to fall more and more engineers were coming out. The bubble had to burst at some point, and it did. People started finding it difficult to get jobs for the poor quality of education. "Engineering degree would get you an IT job" had started slowly fading away. The demand came crashing down. Lakhs of seats were left vacant and colleges started shutting down.

Major problems with engineering education in A.P:

·         Engineering education becomes a profit-making business to the capitalists

·         Majority of the engineering colleges becoming the hub of unqualified engineers.

·         Unqualified teachers (all certified are not qualified) sprung up like never before in engineering education.

·         Students regularity is a nightmare

·         Semester systems and the process of continuous evaluation are not fulfilling their desired roles

·         Lack of innovation and research

·         The study attributes the lack of English communicative skills

·         Biometric, IRIS attendance practices become a big comic story

·         AICTE monitoring becomes a tiger on paper

·         University FFC inspections become puppet shows

·         Colleges are busier in preparing papers and organizing drama artists to meet the demands of the university at the time of inspections.

·         No harmony among the institutions and many managements indulging in unethical practices.

·         Most colleges have no proper infrastructure and laboratory facilities per the stipulations of the All India Council of Technical Education.

·         Engineering colleges trapping the parents and students in the name of scoring the marks and passing the exams.

·         Professional consultancies (unofficially called admissions brokers) playing a crucial role in making admissions and each admission makes sure around Rs. 15,000 for middlemen who target gullible students from tribal and backward areas.

·         Academic standards are set to deteriorate owing to the non-availability of faculty members at several colleges.

·         It is a practice among brokers and representatives of the college managements to collect certificates from students and help them select institutions during the web options process.

·         There is a big gap between what the market needs and what Indian education equips its future employees with

·         The expectations that the companies have from their candidates and the skills that engineering graduates bring in, do not match

·         unlike other parts of the world, the Indian faculty is not comprised of the very best of the industries who have the skills to create brilliant students

·         Most educated engineers join teaching as a profession not because of passion, but because they have to earn a livelihood. The few good professors prefer administrative positions because of lower intellectual demands coupled with higher pay packages.

·         Faculties are being emotionally trapped by the management and are gradually transforming into effective admissions brokers.

·         Faculty performance is assessed in the colleges not based on the quality of teaching but based on the number of admissions made in that academic year.

·         Placements become a white color fraud practicing by most of the engineering colleges to attract parents and admissions. It sounds good on banners, papers, and on social media not in the reality.

·         The lack of ability of the individual to deliver his views effectively at the interview leads to the rejection of even the most brilliant candidate. This is because colleges do not make an effort to ensure that the candidates develop their skills in a wholesome manner which can contribute towards client-handling and team communication skills.

Finally, Andhra Pradesh becomes a big hub of engineering colleges that are producing third-grade engineers on a large scale.

What is required?

·         Parents must be properly educated regarding engineering education.

·         Low standard engineering colleges must be closed without mercy.

·         Strict monitoring policies are required to control fraudulence in engineering colleges regarding maintenance, admissions, teaching, and placements.

·         Govt must involve in the recruitment of qualified teachers in private engineering colleges. Identify all the potential interested and eligible candidates in teaching prepare a database with a unique identification number for each faculty.

·         Make every faculty accountable for the quality of education in every engineering college by giving them needed security for their job and remuneration.

·         Teacher's eligibility must be tested periodically through eligibility tests.

·         Infrastructure plays a crucial role in inculcating practical learning to students, so authorities should be very serious in monitoring the standards in maintenance of furniture, buildings, labs, library facilities, playgrounds by engineering colleges.

·         Centralized campus placements for the benefit of sincere engineering students studying in rural engineering colleges.

·         Centralized admissions counseling in the university headquarters of every district to avoid middlemen's role in admissions.

·         The Government of India needs to sit up and take notice of the issues that are threatening the very future and stability of our country.

Final words:

            Normally a country should be proud to have so many fresh graduate engineers but considering the truth behind this, it is quite shameful that we keep producing third-grade engineers who are unfit for employment.

---Jai Hind---

"Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world" - so choose it rightly

 

About the Author

Thalari Sanjeev Kumar is a Trainer & consultant in Learning – Skills training – Development – Coaching and Counseling, working at different levels of individual personal and professional development. Having around18 years of industry and academic experience, working at a different level of teaching and skills training. A Doctorate in Business Management, Master graduate in Psychology, Train the Trainer certified, e-Trainer certified, qualified in UGC National Eligibility Test, Qualified in State level eligibility test of Andhra Pradesh, and also a certified soft skills trainer.

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