Sandeep Kaur, a student of BSc (2nd year) in Government College, Sector 1, Panchkula, didn’t opt for an engineering course in a private college last year. She says, “There is no point in going to a college that can’t provide you a decent job.”
Time to change education system
The stress in our colleges is on traditional streams. We need to adapt to changing times. Anand Mohan Sharan, principal secy
Similarly, Saksham Gehnoria of BSc (1st year) in the same college, says private colleges have poor placement record. “I will rather take the CDS exam and join the defence forces,” he says.
In Haryana private colleges, thousands of BTech seats go vacant every year, indicating that engineering courses are losing sheen among youngsters.
Resultantly, the number of colleges offering BTech courses has come down from 114 in 2017-18 to 77 in 2020-21. At least 37 private institutes have shut down.
According to the Technical Education Department, in 2017-18, there were 127 engineering colleges (114 private and 13 government) offering a total of 43,771 seats (39,940 private and 3,831 government). At least 28,443 and 1,490 seats remained vacant in private and government colleges, respectively.
The same scenario was repeated in 2018-19 and 2019-20. In 2020-21, the number of private institutes fell to 77, where at least 14,675 seats remained vacant. In government colleges, there were no takers for 1,268 seats. For 2021-22, the admission process is yet to be completed. “Engineering courses are losing sheen because of the advent of new-age technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain. The stress in our colleges is on traditional streams. We need to adapt to the changing times,” said Anand Mohan Sharan, Principal Secretary, Higher and Technical Education. He said the department had started the process of filling vacant faculty posts in government colleges.
On the contrary, diploma courses in government polytechnics are doing well with an admission percentage of 72-80. “Polytechnic passouts are more employable than engineering graduates since the former focus more on practical assignments. Besides, polytechnics have signed pacts with many big companies for specialised training,” said Dr Rajesh Goyal, Secretary, Technical Education.