Engineering? Oh well.

All right, this post was due for a long time. Now, around 6.5 lakh or more engineers graduate in India, every year.

Do we really need that many engineers? The answer is both yes and no. Yes, if the engineers are efficient, and technically sound, ie employable. But we find, that , via a national survey, that only about 25-30% of those 6.5 lakh engineers are employable. Rest are simply too nugatory as far as skills are concerned.

I was shocked to read in the newspapers that Andhra Pradesh has almost 2 lakh engineering seats followed by Tamil Nadu. Now come on, 2 lakh? How many of them even deserve to do engineering, let alone excel in it? No matter what most people think, the truth is that Engineering is not everybody's cup of tea(or coffee). Few people have the actual knack for it. But almost all young guys, wanna be engineers. What for, you might ask? No real reason. Just cause everybody else wants to be one. And nobody wants to feel left out or different. Peer pressure is evident as well. Parents pressurize their wards to take up medicine or engineering even if the child has absolutely no inclination towards it.

This situation is indeed pathetic. It gives no room for a child's creative development, and forces him to study something against his/her will. Scientifically it has been prooved that doing something against your wish, will reduce your overall efficiency. No wonder so many engineers end up doing poorly. Cause most of them did not actually want to be engineers in the first place. Or even if they wanted to, it was just cause they felt it would be good for them(in spite of the fact they had no aptitute towards it).

Let us take the different category of students who end up becoming engineers.

i) The Genius type:These people are very rare, and usually have no problem getting into the IIT's. Most of them obtain success in their life, even if engineering is not their actual passion. Cause they are ready to work hard and give their best in anything and everything.

ii) The not-so-genius but good-neverthless type: This category consists of majority of the engineers who may or may not get into IIT's, but do get into NIT's, or other good colleges. Many of them too, do well.

iii) The Wanted-to-do-Medical but-ended-up-with-engineering type: Since the number of medical seats is very limited in India, most wanna be doctors end up becoming engineers. And unless they are  good students, they usually end up performing poorly.

iv) Forced into Engineering type: These are the students who are more interested in Arts , Commerce, or even Basic Sciences(Honours), Law, etc, but are forced by circumstances(peer pressure, etc) to do engineering. They will probably dislike it from the start, and inadvertantly end up with a poor performance.

v) Good-for-nothing-but-still-got-an-engineering-seat type: Many of the remaining engineering seats(esp in private colleges) are filled up with such students, who have hardly studied their entire life, end up performing poorly in every exam, yet manage to find themselves an engineering seat(since there is no dearth of it), and manage to get an engineering degree.( though thats usually the only thing they manage).

India definitely needs more engineers. But better ones. And the last category should be eliminated first of all. Non-deservers should not resort to engineering as a last option.

This was just to give you all a brief idea. Next post will be on management.