'Engineering' Dreams?

Yet another Court ruling, yet another furore, and the fate of engineering courses in Tamil Nadu sinks deeper into the mire of confusion.

The latest twist comes with the Supreme Court ruling that reservations and quotas are out in unaided private professional colleges. The immediate scathing response to it has now put the Government firmly in the spotlight.
The most affected institutions would definitely be the private engineering colleges, especially in 'engineer-prolific' states like Tamil Nadu. Earlier, half the seats in such colleges would end up unfilled, partly due to the lack of eligible candidates for the reserved category. Hence, Mr. Jeppiar's (who is the face of private engineering colleges in TN) unbridled joy at the Supreme Court ruling when he said, "This was the only way we could have sustained our colleges over the next 5 years." A euphemistic way of making a capitalistic statement, "This is the only way we could have made money." I shudder to think of the quality of the students getting in as wannabe engineers in Mr. Jeppiar's new admission system, whatever it may be. On the other hand, if a student requires a quota system to get a seat in a B-grade engineering college, it doesn't speak too highly of his capabilities either.

So in the end, the Supreme Court talks about 'greater autonomy', Parliament talks about 'social justice' and private colleges talk about 'better admission systems', and in the midst of all this, the real victim is ignored - Engineering Education, as it continues to spiral downwards to new depths of mediocrity in the State.

Engineering is dead! Long live engineering!