Faced
with a problem of plenty and no admissions in engineering colleges in Madhya
Pradesh, the state government has written to the All India Council for
Technical Education (AICTE) to not give permission for more engineering
colleges.
Madhya Pradesh has 215
engineering colleges with 1,01,535 students; over 58 per cent seats go vacant
due to non-availability of students annually. In all, the engineering colleges
in the state have over 98,000 seats vacant annually and several colleges are
opting for closure.
Since a huge number of
seats are already lying vacant with massive infrastructure of the engineering
colleges going waste, the department of technical education has decided against
opening new engineering colleges. The director of the department of technical
education has written a letter to AICTE, which gives permission to new
engineering colleges, that fresh permission to new colleges should not be
given.
While the decision of the
state government in not allowing new engineering colleges has been welcomed by
the existing college owners, a former president of the Technical Teachers
Training Institute of India, a government-run body, Shailendra Sharma, said a
blanket ban on new colleges is not good.
He said those institutions
that are very good should be allowed to come up as the quality institutes
cannot be stopped from starting new ventures. He expressed concern over the
growth of mushrooming private universities. Sharma said, “Quality and
excellence in education can only develop through competition; we should not
curb competition.”
Due to lack of admissions,
dozens of engineering colleges in Madhya Pradesh closed last year as very few
students took admission in bachelors courses in branches like computer,
electronics, mechanical, and civil. Out of 215 colleges in the state, over a dozen
colleges could not even get a single admission.
There were some 14
colleges, which could not get even a single student while 200 branches of
various streams across 50 colleges had no takers. There are colleges where just
two to eight students have taken admission. With just a few, or no, students,
these colleges face the imminent decision of closure, leading to loss of jobs
for scores of teachers and employees.
However, education experts
and counsellors believe that poor quality of educational infrastructure and low
demand of engineers from industry have led to this situation. Out of the total
students who passed out from engineering colleges, just 15 per cent got jobs.
The poor quality of
education and students over the years has diminished the image of engineering
education in Madhya Pradesh. Out of 70 engineering colleges in Bhopal, just
three colleges could fill hundred per cent seats.
Akhilesh Upadhyaya, a
social activist, said, “There is a general apathy among well-to-do students of
the state against the local colleges. Most of them migrate to big cities and
southern states for engineering education as it helps them find jobs easily.”
He said, “Most of the
engineering colleges in the state are running on the scholarship schemes of the
state government for scheduled caste, scheduled tribes and OBC students. Hence,
except for a few, they have not improved on the quality to attract genuine
career-minded students.”
Madhya Pradesh is among
the top six states of country with over 200 engineering colleges. Tamil Nadu
has 527 engineering colleges, followed by Maharashtra (372), Andhra Pradesh
(328), Uttar Pradesh (296), Telangana (284) and Karnataka (192).
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