What is the first thing which comes in the mind of a student who gets good marks in entrance examination of any engineering college? It is to get Computer Science branch. Irrespective of the area of interest of the student, they decide the branch based on what others tell about job opportunities and future scope.
I agree that there are more opportunities in the field of computer and electronics but that doesn’t mean a student should study that subject only because of this. If its machines, which have fascinated you towards pursuing engineering then why would you like to take up an IT branch just because you got good marks.
The system is now playing with the minds of the students. It’s not the student which is selecting the branch here but it’s the branch which is actually selecting the student.
This is leading to a complete student-branch mismatch. What I don’t understand here is how a student can excel in something in which he/she was never actually interested in the first place. Even if he does manage to excel, it will definitely be not up to that level to which he might have succeeded otherwise.
Our country has become so heavily dependent on the IT sector in terms of job opportunities that other areas are left behind. This is creating serious doubts in the minds of the students that whether they will be able to progress in any other field or not. At that young age, they get so many second thoughts about pursuing their area of interest that more often than not they end up doing what the trend says.
I am not saying that this is the story of everyone. There are students who take up branches based on what fascinates them about engineering but there is a huge chunk of students who do it just because the society expects them to.
Seeing the fact that TCS, Wipro and Infosys take up the maximum number of students from any college, students as well as their parents develop the idea that job is only available in this area, which is certainly not the truth. Though these are big companies and they pick students in bulk from engineering colleges, the growth becomes limited if you are from a different branch all together like Chemical or Electrical when you look in terms of progressing in the direction of the subjects you studied for 4 years.
It’s not only the story of 2nd tier or 3rd tier engineering colleges, even if you take up IITs, it’s the same case there as well. A student takes Computer Science by default, the moment he scores good marks in JEE without much thinking about the area of interest. And if the marks are not that great, then Electronics and Communication, and so on, they don’t try to find out the field which really fascinates them.
The system should be such that it gives the student the freedom to think what he can do best and not just look forward to avail the jobs which will be offered after the completion of 4 years. The mindset has to change if we really want quality engineers coming out of colleges. We cannot just keep complaining that the quality of engineering has gone down in our country. Mismatch of branch and student is one of the major reasons which have led to this situation, and something really needs to done to fix it.
