95% ENGINEERS NOT FIT TO TAKE UP SOFTWARE DEV JOBS
Talent shortage is acute in the IT and data science ecosystem in India with a survey claiming that 95% of engineers in the country are not fit to take up software development jobs.
According to a study by employability assessment company Aspiring Minds, only 4.77% candidates can write the correct logic for a programme — a minimum requirement for any programming job. Over 36,000 engineering students form IT related branches of over 500 colleges took Automata — a machine learningbased assessment of software development skills — and over two-thirds could not even write code that compiles.
The study further noted that while more than 60% candidates cannot even write code that compiles, only 1.4% can write functionally correct and efficient code. “Lack of programming skills is adversely impacting the IT and data science ecosystem in India... India needs to catch up,” Aspiring Minds CTO and co-founder Varun Aggarwal said.
The employability gap can be attributed to rote learning based approaches rather than actually writing programmes on a computer for different problems. Also, there is a dearth of good teachers for programming, since most good programmers get jobs in industry at good salaries.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) asked private schools affiliated to it to stop commercial activities and follow the education bylaws on appointments and daily functioning, a move that has annoyed the schools. In one communication, the board asked schools to “run as community services and not as business, and ensure that commercialization does not take place in the school in any shape whatsoever”.
The board warned schools that it has received several complaints from parents and students about how schools are “indulging in commercial activities by way of selling of books, uniforms etc, within the school premise or through selected vendors”.
“The board has taken a serious view of the above violations. Hence, once again your attention is drawn that educational institutions are not commercial establishments and their sole responsibility is to provide quality education,” CBSE said in its communication underlining further that they should desist from such “unhealthy practices”. It asked the school management to ensure “strict compliance” with its communication.
CBSE also asked recognized unaided schools to refrain from reappointing retired teachers and took note of certain schools that have done so in the recent past. Predictably, schools aren’t happy. A school association said the CBSE has issued a circular seeking confidential data pertaining to the day-to-day operations of all affiliated schools.
The National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA) accused the CBSE of harassing schools and said that if required, it will not hesitate to take legal action.