Engineering seats set to be axed
Deputy Chief Minister and education minister Kadiam Srihari said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, with the objective of imparting better education, would be cutting down the number of engineering seats from 1.4 lakh to 1.25 lakh.
“When the state was formed, we had more than 2 lakh seats which meant that anybody could take up the engineering course. I believe the seats will be cut down to 70,000 this year. There are no specific colleges in mind but we will target colleges that have not been following the rules and that do not have good faculty. With fewer students, we plan to have skill development courses as well which would give them more employment opportunities,” said JNTU Vice Chancellor A. Venugopal Reddy.
Prof. G.V.K. Reddy of Vardhaman College of Engineering said, “By having too many colleges, we are losing out on resources and time. Society and parents force children to go down the beaten track of engineering because they know that their wards would get a seat, no matter what.”
With more courses coming up, students have begun exploring different options, which, however, are not yet being promoted. “There are a plethora of courses like journalism, literature, textiles, economics, accountancy and courses in basic sciences like chemistry, biology
When the state was formed, we had more than 2 lakh seats which meant that anybody could take up the engineering course. I believe the seats will be cut down to 70,000 this year. There are no specific colleges in mind but we will target colleges that have not been following the rules and that do not have good faculty. With fewer students, we plan to have skill development courses as well which would give them more employment opportunities — A. VENUGOPAL REDDY, JNTU Vice-Chancellor
and physics which have a lot of potential and which should be explored,” said JNTU registrar Dr N. Yadiah.
“I believe that parents require to be counselled before we counsel students. We should encourage the students’ freedom to choose and not impose a field of study on them which would kill their original talent and thinking ability,” says Dr. Yadiah.
Mr Goutham Rao, president of the engineering colleges association, said, “This announcement is in contradiction with the government's action of approving 2 to 3 new colleges. What is the assurance that by reducing the number of seats, the quality of education would increase? Rather the number of colleges should be controlled!”