Impractical Knowledge

Yesterday, finally my engineering first semester exams got over and I took off some time to sit down and analyze the list of valuable things I learned, the skills I developed and the practical knowledge I gained during the semester. Frankly, I was not surprised at all to find the list empty after the analysis. In the span of 145 days of my journey as an engineer, I appeared for around 26 tests (including 8 class tests, 12 sessional tests, and 6 university exams), 10 practical exams (including 5 internal practical exams and 5 external practical exams), and completed around 10 assignments . I hope you get the point. After appearing for so many tests, practical exams and completing so many assignments I literally gained nothing. I did not learn anything new nor developed any real-life skills. So the question that arises here is, "What do these tests and exams really test?" Though I'm not completely sure about the answer I can firmly say that skills and knowledge are no...

Earlier this month, the All India Council for Technical Education(AICTE) made the decision to shut down 300 private engineering colleges all over India due to less than 30% seat enrollment for five consecutive years. It is quite possible that many of these colleges may be converted to science colleges or vocational education institutes. The decision will be finalized by AICTE by December end and the colleges would be expected to stop admission processes from the 2018-19 session. There are around 3,000 private engineering colleges in India, but more than 90% of them fail to provide any quality education . They function more like factories producing unemployable engineers each year. Providing the students with practical knowledge and development of skills are given no importance. This is the reason why I feel that this decision could have a positive outcome overall. The Positive Side As an engineering student myself, frustrated with the education system and it...

India is one of the largest producers of engineers in the world. Yet, more than 70% of engineers are unemployed due to severe competition, and by some estimates only 7-8% of engineering graduates are actually employable.  These are the first two lines of the Wikipedia article;  Engineering education in India . Wikipedia Logo Aspiring Minds , an Indian employability evaluation, and certification company revealed that only 7 percent of engineering graduates in India were suitable for core engineering jobs in its National Employability Report 2016: Engineers  after a study on 1,50,000 engineering students. It also revealed that a whopping 97 percent of the engineering graduates wanted jobs in either software engineering or core engineering. However only 3 percent of them possessed the suitable skills to be employed in software or product market, and only 7 percent could handle core engineering tasks. Aspiring Minds is an Indian evaluation and certificatio...