Three govt engineering colleges in doldrums
IN APRIL THIS YEAR, THE ALL INDIA COUNCIL FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION (AICTE) HAD DENIED PERMISSION TO THE STATE TO START THESE COLLEGES WITHOUT SETTING UP PROPER INFRASTRUCTURE
JAIPUR : Three government engineering colleges started in haste by the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in three backward districts of Rajasthan earlier this year are shunned by both students and faculties.
The three colleges at Dholpur, Karauli and Baran have 300 seats each. But as per the education department figures, only 26 students took admission for the academic year 2017-18 in the five branches of engineering offered at the Baran college.
The figures are more pathetic in the two other colleges with the total number of admissions being as low as seven.
It’s, however, not only the students who are giving these institutes a miss. There is no faculty in the three engineering colleges, which are run from the campuses of other institutes.
The Dholpur and Karauli colleges are functioning from the Bharatpur engineering college while the Baran college is run from the campus of government polytechnic.
State technical education minister Kiran Maheshwari admitted facing problems in attracting students and faculties. But he claimed that poor enrolment is the reflection of “waning interest” of students towards engi- throughout the country.
She said that the government has taken measures to improve the standard of the colleges and attract students.
“We have tried to bring in good faculties, introduce new courses, ensure infrastructure and upgrade our syllabus, aligning it to the needs of industry so students get employment,” she said, “We have also reduced the annual fee from ₹77,000 to ₹70,000.”
Others, however, claimed the adverse situation is because of the haste shown by the state government in starting these colleges without appointing faculty or building infrastructure.
In fact in April this year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had denied per- mission to the state to start these colleges without setting up proper infrastructure. However, the government was in a hurry to fulfil the promise made in the 2014-15 state budget in view of the Dholpur by-election.
Maheshwari again pushed the matter with AICTE officials in June and obtained the nod.
An official of the technical education department cited remoteness of the colleges for the poor response. “Since these colleges are located in remote parts of the state, students are not keen to join them. Hiring faculty too is posing problem because of the same reason,” he said.
But at the same time, he pointed out that all the government colleges in the state are facneering ing similar problems.
The education department records show that Rajasthan Technical University that gives affiliation to these colleges has 159 teaching posts vacant.
The Bharatpur engineering college has 62 posts vacant, while Banswara has all 29 posts vacant. In Bhilwara the number is 39, in Jhalawar it is 29, 60 in Bikaner and 82 in Ajmer. The colleges are making do with guest faculties.
While speaking about the decline in the number of admissions in engineering, Rajasthan Technical University (RTU) vicechancellor Dr NP Kaushik said that this is a nationwide problem and not specific to Rajasthan. “We have tried to change and update the curriculum so it is in line with needs of the industry. RTU has also signed an MoU with the Engineers Council of India for internships, which will help our students in getting jobs.”
Kaushik admitted that appointing faculty was proving a challenge. “Professors do not want to go to colleges in remote areas. Also the colleges offer self financing courses. Few admissions mean low revenue, which in turn mean the colleges cannot attract quality teachers who will demand high salary. Maintaining infrastructure is also a challenge.”
At an event in Jaipur, AICTE chairman Anil Dattatreya had cautioned that colleges which lack proper infrastructure and register less than 30% admissions for five consecutive years will be shut down.
He also advised engineering colleges and universities to revise and renew their syllabus, which was a major cause for declining admissions and quality of education.
This year the government engineering colleges in the state saw 58% admissions. As per education department data out of 5,860 seats only 2,483 seats have been filled.
Private engineering colleges too are not faring any better. Of the 43,446 seats available in 100 colleges, only 13864 were filled.
This comes at a time when the central government has launched initiatives such as Make in India to create more jobs, especially in the manufacturing sector.