Poor Quality of Engineering Admissions in India – Who is Responsible?

Who is responsible for the poor quality of engineering admissions in india?

Are they institutions, government authorities, society, other stakeholders or students themselves?

Let’s check it with some humour and facts…..

Preamble

There was a time when you can find everyone saying that “अरे एक पत्थर लेकर हवा में उछालो और देखना ये पत्थर जिसके सर पर गिरेगा वो इंजीनियर ही निकलेगा.” and this was true just because of the dream of most of the parents and that was “अरे मेरा बेटा तो इंजीनियर ही बनेगा.”.

This scenario could be understood with one psychology of that time “अरे मेडिकल की पढाई तो काफी मंहगी हैं और एडमिशन भी आसान नहीं हैं, और मेरा बेटा BA, BSc जैसे कोर्सेस करेगा, इससे तो अच्छा है की  B.Tech ही कर ले, लगे हाथ ग्रेजुएशन भी हो जाएगी और इसके अलावा तो कोई ऑप्शन ही नहीं है. अगर किसी ने animation, graphics जैसे कोर्सेस की बात कर दी तो जवाब वही की इसमें स्कोप नहीं है.

Another psychology was related with the prestige “इसका मतलब ये हुआ की अगर आप इंजीनियर हैं तो आप सम्मान के योग्य हैं और माता पिता के लिए तो बस एक बार इंजीनियरिंग कर लो, नौकरी तो अपने आप लग जाएगी और फिर शादी के रिश्ते भी अच्छे आएंगे तो ये हुई न एक तीर से दो निशाने वाली बात. अब तो मन में लड्डू फूटा या अभी भी नहीं”.

अरे अरे ये क्या हुआ में तो मुद्दे से ही भटकता जा रहा हूँ बात करनी थी की इंजीनियरिंग एडमिशंस की ख़राब गुणवत्ता की और बात शादी की होने लगी. चलिए तो फिर मुद्दे पर आते हैं.

Understanding Engineering Admissions as a Product

To understand the topic better, relate engineering admissions with a product and as you all are aware that every product has a life span after which the product needs to be improved further so that its life can be improved otherwise it will be diminished. So, after the independence, with the requirement of making the nation sustainable and capable in the field of higher technical education, five IITs (Kharagpur, Bombay, Kanpur, Madras and Delhi) were established during 1951 – 1963.

During the same time, a report by S.S Bhatnagar committee estimated the requirement of technical manpower in different government sectors for 10 years in the ratio of demand and supply as 4:1. It means, if there is the demand of 4 technical persons, the supply would be of only 1 technical person.

Now, it can be understood easily that based on the above report and many reports in subsequent years by different committees, several technical institutions of different categories such as ITIs, RECs (later converted to NITs), IITs and many others in private sector as well were established.

If I will relate the above paras with product life cycle, the product with name engineering admissions was being developed initially and then further expanded based on the assessment of the requirements.

Demand and Supply Concept

At this point, I would also like to introduce you with the concept of demand and supply. I hope, everyone is aware with the fact that, with the rise of demand of any product in the market, an opportunity is created automatically to fulfil the demand with the supply of the same.

This opportunity would always be fruitful, when demand is greater than or equal to the supply. On the other hand, when the case is opposite, i.e. demand is less than the supply, the opportunity would no longer be available for the market to encash the product. This is the situation, where either product needs to be improved otherwise it will get diminished.

Relating Engineering Admissions with the Concept of Demand and Supply

I hope, now you would be able to relate the scenario of poor quality of engineering admissions or in other words downfall in engineering education with the concept of demand and supply. Now, Coming back to the main point, establishment of the technical institutions of several categories as mentioned above were boon to the society till the quality of the outgoing students was being matched with the quality of the demand of the industries or market in general and the product called engineering admissions was at its peak.

However, probably during the start of twentieth century, a sudden rise in the number of engineering institutions by several private players, due to one or other reason, was seen. But, one thing was clear, that they all wanted to encash the opportunity created by demand of the product called engineering admissions with the popular demand and supply concept. Here, I would also like to mention that, establishment of any institution or any market place comes with the responsibility to invest sufficiently as per the requirement in line with the long-term vision of the enterprise.

Now, we are little bit moving towards the conclusion. So, before the twentieth century, when the demand was greater than or equal to the supply, everything was on the track. It means, getting admitted to the institutions was competitive, the admitted students were being trained sufficiently as per the requirement of the market place, therefore they were also getting jobs matching with their aspirations. Henceforth, everyone was satisfied and engineering was being treated as a matter of prestige.

Poor Quality of Engineering Admissions

But after twentieth century, this competition was not as it was before, the competition was also divided in to two categories i.e it was still competitive to get admitted in the top-notch institutions on the other hand it was much easier to get admitted in other institutions. However, this situation has not arrived drastically, like every other situation, the changes were appearing slowly-2.

The differences were started to appear such as those who were not able to get admitted in top-notch institutions, they have started getting admitted in other institutions as they only wanted to do engineering (may be because of own interest, prestige, family reasons and many other as well).

Now, the whole engineering student’s community has been started dividing in two groups. First group was of those students, who were getting admitted in top notch institutions or in other institutions, but based on keen interest to explore the field of engineering, and the second group was of those, who were getting admitted in other institutions, just on the basis of some other reasons like prestige, family reasons and many others as well.

Therefore, first group was being trained sufficiently as per the requirement of the market place, therefore they were also getting jobs matching with their aspirations. They were also fulfilling the demand of the marketplace.

On the other hand, the second group was not getting jobs matching with their ambitions initially because of their poor employability skills. Moreover, the ratio of the second group of the students started increasing slowly-2 because of the easy procedure of getting admissions.

Poor Quality of Engineering Admissions – Key Point

Since the demand of the market place is being already fulfilled by the first group of students. The second group of students were being treated as surplus and ineffective supply. Therefore, the second group of students were either getting jobs not matching with their objectives or even not getting the jobs. In both the cases, the second group of students and the connected audience was dissatisfied with the situation. It was the time, when the product called engineering was at its decreasing level.

Concluding Remarks

At the same time, with the globalisation and increasing diversity of the market place, the opportunities in other fields such as agriculture, animation, graphics design, pharmacy, nutrition, media management and many others started increasing. Therefore, seeing the so-called scope in these fields, the second group of students has started finding their ways in these programs. As a result of the same, the admissions in engineering programs started decreasing.

However, the same product life cycle gets repeated for every product. The fact is, if the demand of the market place for any product is getting its required and effective supply, the product is alive otherwise……………….

और फिर वैसे भी जहाँ स्कोप वहां हम……………

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Thanks

Sources:

1. S. K. Saha and S. Ghosh, “Commissions and committees on technical education in independent India: an appraisal”, Indian journal of history of science, 47.1 (2012) 109 – 138.

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Disclaimer: The views presented in this article are the author’s own views. The views are presented here just for the purpose of information. These views are not meant to harm any one’s belief / thoughts.