Engineering education in West Bengal is facing a problem of plenty. Around 6,238 seats are lying vacant after the second round of counselling and the reasons are manifold. A third round of counselling is slated between August 29 and 31, to fill up the vacancies.
Experts said the primary reason is the increasing number of private engineering colleges that stands at 79. This is a sharp increase from around 2,200 vacancies last year from 73 private engineering colleges. The total number of engineering seats in West Bengal is about 28,100 compared to 24,000 last year.
R Roy, an Information Technology (IT) graduate from Dr BC Roy Engineering College, Durgapur, said, “In our country, a student decides to study or not to study a subject depending on its job prospects. The number of information technology seats remaining vacant is not surprising. If a student specialises in mechanical or electrical engineering, he will get openings in IT along with his mother trade, but not vice-versa.”
Moreover, during the recession top-rung software firms such as TCS, Cognizant and Infosys had reduced their employee strength. The lack of infrastructure, the quality of faculty and poor placement go against most private engineering colleges.
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“In 2005, my college could not provide placement. And most faculty members do not have much exposure in the industry. Out of the 79, about 5-6 colleges provide decent level of placements,” said Roy.
“Long back, the entrance board used to publish names of around 1,000 students for admission. Now, with the proliferation of private engineering colleges, that number has crossed 50,000 or so. As a result, the quality of students is not good and ranking and employability has now become inversely proportional,” he said.
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Prasenjit Dutta, who graduated with computer science in 2005 from Bengal Institute of Technology, Bamunghata, near Kolkata, echoed Roy’s views. “Allowing one group to open only one institute would help in standardisation,” he said.
The increase in course fees hasn’t helped the situation either. There has been an increase in fees from Rs 40,000 last year to Rs 71,000. Experts see this as another reason for the high rate of vacancies.
Siddharta Datta, chairman of the Joint Entrance Examination Board, said, this is a national phenomenon. “Nationally, about 4.5 million students appear for the school leaving examination every year. Of these, 0.45 million are from the science stream which is about 10 per cent and 0.4 million passes the examination. But there are 0.5 million engineering seats in the country. Among them, students opt for medical, general sciences and other courses. Last year, seats in IT and food technology remained vacant. This year, computer science, applied electronics, bio-technology and pharmacy have added to the list.”
Datta said about 60 private colleges did not have vacancies. Earlier, the process was to first take permission from the state government and the university and then to approach the AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education). From last year, the investors in the education sector have been allowed to approach the AICTE directly. As a result, the state government does not have say in engineering education.
Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chowdhury, commentator and professor of Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata said, “There were a handful of government-run engineering colleges in West Bengal till the late 90s. Now, more students are graduating than needed by the industry.”
He said that the quality and standard of education is under the scanner and AICTE should set up a national standard. “The state does not seem to have a focussed policy on higher education either. When we did not have many engineering colleges, we opted for a knee-jerk reaction leading to a proliferation of private colleges. As a result, we do not have a long-term policy and the quality and standard have been seriously compromised.”
Basu Roy Chowdhury also said that over-politicisation of the education sector is also affecting it adversely. “The state government should try to create more jobs in line with industrially advanced states such as Maharashtra and Karnataka. Till that is done, interests of students in engineering is not likely to pick up.”