TamilNadu Engg Colleges - A Royal Mess

If there is anything that is more messy than the marriage - honeymoon - divorce - focus shift statements from the Left, then it has to be the way Engg eduction happens in Tamil Nadu.

First, the supply is more than the demand and the quality suffers in that proportion. If you have got the minimum qualification (45%?) to apply for engg education, you are sure to get a seat. Then the confusion starts as to whether entrance exam needs to be held or not?, What happens to improvement students?, what happens to the various quotas?, etc., All these are cleared only after umpteen court cases. Then, you are all set to attend the counselling. [if there is one system that works properly, then it is the counselling - admission system]. After numerous suggestions on what course to take or what college to join - the student & the parents decide on it during the counselling.

The problems don't end there. The fees structure is so customizable [to the benefit of the college mgmt] that all software products would love to have that logic in their webclient. You see one amount in the paper, you pay another. No questions asked - the well-oiled machinery just runs..

The gullible student enters the college [ after a 15km journey - which was earlier promised as very near to the Main Road junction] to see eternally under- construction buildings. Most of the colleges don't have the required infrastructure - be it the classrooms, labs, computers, teachers [ most of them fresh recruits - would have finished engg a year or two before - didn't get a good job], library, hostel facilities [ the less said - the better]. The city colleges fare a shade better in this regard.

The syllabus & exams don't expect you to work hard on becoming a creative, thoughtful, innovative engineer. So, getting a pass is guaranteed if you can get hold of a good guide, old question paper booklets - sometimes the actual question paper too [ My batch had to rewrite three exams when it was found that question papers had leaked].

Last year there was a commotion on Deemed University status - the degree might just have become a paper. But there is no dearth of admission to the same, this year. The future is safe as long as the software companies are hell bent on increasing their head count.

This year, the commotion is about the raids on Engg colleges who are collecting more than the required fees. The raids have a political colour too (the engg. colleges are very good revenue generators for erst-while politicians). The latest - The TamilNadu government has recommended to the All India Council For Technical Education to close 34 engineering colleges.

Now, What happens to the students???