THE MOST LUCRATIVE BUSINESS IN INDIA- "ENGINEERING"

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There’s an apt Joke about parents in India. They say to their child, “You can study any field you want... as long as it’s engineering. Because in India, if you don’t work for Infosys, you don’t get Dowry.” That’s how our life is spent in India. Our lives are spent being pushed around. And it begins at Home. Why? Because our parents wants us to become an Engineer and this ‘Engineering’ concept has ruined so many lives in this country that I can tell you. And let me clear this, “Don’t think those who make it to IITs are the people whose lives are made.” Because everywhere the focus is that we must mug up. How we are going to change our lives is not known. Unfortunately, we are in a system where the entire focus is on completing the syllabus. To complete the syllabus the focus is so strong that Teachers come inside a classroom, whichever way complete the syllabus and go away. Has the last boy sitting in the last bench or the first boy sitting in the first bench sitting in the front bench understood ? Do they ever ask this Question to themselves ? Most often they don’t. Why ? Because they are in a hurry to finish the syllabus and that is why most often sttudents don’t relate to what’s being taught. The commercialisation of education in India which has led to a Engineering College on just about every block, have been a disaster for India. When my Uncle was studying Engineering in the 1980s, there were only 3 Engineering Colleges in Orissa and 6 in neighbouring A.P. Now? Nobody knows how many Engineering Colleges have mushroomed. Some people have made huge amounts of money but at the expense of the lives of many of India’s young population. Those who promote privatization for India’s ills, this should serve as a cautionary tale. During the last 15 years or so we have seen that setting up colleges and so called management instiutes has become a business. It is common knowledge that by allowing establishment of new Engineering Colleges every year, the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) may have succeeded in achieving a quantitative jump in seats in the Engineering Colleges. But, the fact remains that quality of education imparted in these colleges suffered very badly. Eminent personalities like Mr. E.Sreedharan and Mr. Azim Premji have expressed concern about the falling standards of Engineering education but those who have set up such colleges do not seem to be really worried about the poor quality of Education. There are no easy solutions. Poor Infrastructure, shortage of good teaching faculty and poor regulation are three main points of worry when we discuss quality of education of our Technical/Engineering institutes. All concerned must make efforts to solve the problem. All these years, the country was busy talking about Demographic divident without even realising that a poor and resource strapped country like India cannot afford to have a high population growth rate. All these years, media was busy portraying that a huge young population is actually a boon to the Nation and how we got it right vis-a-vis China. Unlike in developed countries, people in India are dependent on jobs for their livelihood. If large number of young population remain unemployed, it would actually cause massive internal unrest. But when has the Media actually understood the issues before shouting from the rooftops? My friend’s dad used to say him rather then spending to make his son an Engineer, if money was spent on fertilisers, for Banana trees, the returns would have been tremendous. I now realised, he was true. Engineering is nothing just an ego now a days. Engineering colleges have become a business in India and the pity thing is that we take pride in it. As Indians, we always believe in quantity over quality. Many thanks to AICTE, UGC and some similar corrupt organisations in this country which allowed to establish educational shops like Universities, deemed to be Universities, etc. Government should focus on improving the conditions of previous institutions rather than opening new. Otherwise, Engineering will be one of another scam in the future. And the point is, we cosider a University is only as good as how much money we make afterwards. Do we have to measure every freaking thing in terms of how much money people make? This is something meaningless. Perhaps a so called low ranking college may also become a point of pride. A good education and wealth have no reason to be correlatives. People whose main aim in life is a high income are not, in my opinion, really educated. Why should education reflect how much money we make? Is money the only measure of success? College is (or should be) about the persuit of knowledge. There’s more to life than money as well. People who are, say, Soldiers, Police Officers, Fire Fighters or Teachers, for example, don’t earn the highest pay checks but they serve the public and make the community safer and better. Its like just because you walk to school doesn’t mean you take your lunch. Worth and Wealth are two different things. Its not all about Pay checks, Ideas matters that can heal the world. Remember, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates never went to a college nor they have a university degree but their ideas became milestone for generations. Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity?