Déjà vu of Indian engineering
Back in school, the parents and faculty were made to watch “Taare Zameen par”. Yes, the same movie that says, “Every child is special”. But, it looks like the film ending was wide open for interpretation : ) Probably that’s the reason why most parents thought their child will shine like a star only in IIT-JEE and engineering, and the reason why schools set such high standards for Science compared to commerce and humanities.
Nonetheless, two years of slogging between coaching and boards. It looks like India’s coaching industry every year makes more money than Bollywood. Some make it to big names like IIT and NITs, and some carry their burden to private engineering colleges. Not all in the same boat, but fighting the same storm.
Believing we can improve schooling with more test is like believing you can make yourself grow taller by measuring your height.
The journey starts. Six courses in a semester, countless assignments, exams, mid sem, end sem and a daily quest for attendance . And an insane belief that all this will boost up the productivity of a multinational company and make students so-called employable. We focus on logic and practical learning as much as Bollywood focuses on their script and storylines : ) Students tend to leave a class feeling dumber than when they went in. The “YouTube” University is doing a better job than so-called premier accreditated private universities.
Moving to the facts -
India produces more engineers than the US and China combined. Over 80 per cent of them are unemployable; that’s another fact.
Maybe it’s time to introspect whether we need more “engineers” or just “engineering graduates”. It makes a huge difference, right? No doubt, there is a brighter side. Emerging startups that make a change, cuttings edge technologies to work and cool packages, maybe. But, This only comes when we choose domain over college brands, skills over CGPA, value over degrees, and interest over CHAAR LOG!
Sometimes walking against is better than following the rest.
