Hello everyone. I Am Niranjan Balasubramani, a computer science engineering student at RNS Institute of Technology, Bangalore. In my first article, I would like to write about the engineering education in India. Why engineering is the preferred degree? And why aren’t we able to provide quality engineers?
Engineering is a prestigious degree. A social obligation and it’s a guarantee of an average career. Like a coin which has two sides, it has its advantages and disadvantages. We can mutter and blame engineering for the things it doesn’t provide. But how many of us realize that the system has been there for decades and it’s not going to change anytime soon? How many of us accept engineering for what it is and embrace it? How many of us work on our own flaws?
We, Indians, are trend followers. Not trend setters. The Indian education system teaches us to be logical and as a result we become good at mathematics and analytical thinking. But the westerners learn things in a whole lot different way. Their education system is skill-oriented, whereas Indian system is knowledge-oriented. Westerners are good at applying their knowledge practically and are more pragmatic when it comes to educating themselves. They believe in learning through immersion. We learn things from books and by practice.
To know the main reason behind why engineering has become so popular in India, we need to look at it in a historical context:
India got its independence in 1947 after being ruled by the British for more than two centuries. Post-independence we had huge sterlings and didn’t have an infrastructure of our own. When the first-generation computers were being invented in the US, we were trying to adapt to our own system after the British rule. The leaders of India thought the best way to move forward was to develop the infrastructural and industrial abilities of the country. Our first goal was to be self-reliant. And this led to engineering. The first IIT was set up in Kharagpur in 1951 which had 10 branches. Then many institutions were set up all over the country and people’s interest in engineering grew immensely. Engineers were respected because they brought out a societal change which benefited human needs at large.
As years passed by, more and more people got interested in engineering and India was brimming with prosperity in the education sector. The fact that most Indians choose to do masters outside India also has a story to it. In the 1990s, India was on the verge of bankruptcy. As a result, many people from India went to abroad for higher studies and to work for them because they gave Indians a very good pay. The westerners got intelligent candidates in return. That’s how engineering got its name in our educational system and doing masters outside India got its prominence. This has made engineering more valuable than other streams of education.
According to statistics, nearly three thousand engineering colleges have been set up in India with a capacity of 1.4 million seats across 36 courses approved by the All India Council of Technical Education as of 2012. 65% of the colleges are from South India and rest from the North. If we consider the number of engineers graduating every year, it is not an easy task to get a job. As we dig more into the statistics, it gets daunting.
(The statistics mentioned are approximate figures.)
Right from our childhood, we are brought up in a way either to become a doctor or an engineer. It’s become the common goal of every student. In the process of creating an excellent education system, we have started numerous institutions everywhere to provide engineering education to almost everyone. By doing so, we have forgotten to concentrate on the quality of education provided. A single institution cannot be blamed; a single stream cannot be the culprit. The flaws of our education system are immense. It’s at the core of the system itself. To correct it and set it right will take another educational revolution.
Instead of blaming the system for everything, aren’t we responsible for its flaws?
We are the ones who caused it. Why can’t we find a solution to solve it?
The complaints of any engineering student are that it’s frustrating, futile, senseless and an outdated syllabus which is uninteresting in every aspect. And being an engineering student, even I feel the same as well. As I think about how to make engineering life better and productive, I realize that even we are to be blamed. Every stream has its core strength. And it’s in our discretion to choose what’s best for us. If a chosen subject isn’t suiting us, we always have the opportunity to change our stream once we get over it. Life doesn’t end after engineering. This is how we have made it and this is how it’s bound to be. It’s high time that we comprehend the education system and try to fit in instead of whining about it. Because, when we accept the world for what it is, the going gets a lot easier. Just like an old saying, “When you are going through hell, keep going”.
I’ve tried my best to fit into engineering and the field that I’ve chosen. Sometimes it’s frustrating and sometimes it’s interesting. Never is it stable. But that’s life. The vicissitudes that we go through which brings a spice to human race. I would like to share something from an article which I found whilst researching about the education system. They quoted, “Don’t waste your brain power – become an engineer”. That, to me, is sarcasm at its best for the way engineering is been taught. I hope all the engineers out there will get what I mean.
I’ll leave you all with one thought. Most of us say we don’t love what we are doing. Well, do we know what we love? If you do, then that’s a start!
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