SHAH KHALID
Scores of Diploma Engineering holders are up in arms against the authorities for not paying any kind attention towards their career, which had left hundreds of Diploma Engineering pass out student in a state of distress, as none of the University and engineering colleges here have a sufficient intake Capacity of seats for these candidates for pursuing Bachelors of Engineering programme through Lateral Entry scheme, in which diploma engineering Students are directly admitted in 3rd semester of their Bachelors programme.
According to Sources, the state administration had setup Government Polytechnic Engineering College namely Kashmir Government Polytechnic College in 1958 but to date, the college had not been Upgraded to introduce bachelor of engineering programmes. However in 2005 academic session the then Minister for Technical Education RS Chib during an interaction with media scribes at a function at KGP Sringar, had promised that the proposal is in pipeline with the government to upgrade the Kashmir Government Polytechnic (KGP) into a full-fledged engineering colleges, but irony is that the proposal has remained on papers only.
Pertinaly in 2012 academic session the NC-Congress coalition Government had set up Government Polytechnic Engineering Colleges in every district of Jammu and Kashmir, from which thousands of candidates get annually passed out. However, the students are feeling unsafe as they have been ignored by the successive regimes for not increasing the intake Capacity of seats in the B-Tech LEET scheme.
Tufail Mechanical engineering passes out student from Government Polytechnic College Pulwama told Kashmir Despatch that ” Couple of times we have written to authorities regarding increase the Intake capacity of seats for Lateral entry program. But it seems no one is bothered, as officials are only passing the buck”.
Meanwhile, according to sources some State and Autonomous University in Kashmir division are admitting the candidate for late entry program but with a capacity of 10 seats per branch, for which thousands of candidates appear annually for the entrance examination. An official handout in the Kashmir University told Kashmir Despatch that at around 600 application forms had been received by our office for the B-Tech Lateral Entry program for 2019 academic session, but due to minimum capacity of seats, only a few students got to enroll on their merit secured in the entrance examination.
Sadaf (name changed) a girl pass out student from Women Polytechnic College Srinagar told this correspondent “Nowadays it is so hard to get a job on your diploma course, as now majority of the students come from degree background. We are facing immense hardships to get admitted under Lateral Entry scheme with such a less number of seats” he further added the lateral entry examination here in Kashmir is tougher than any competitive examination.
Another student who wished anonymity told Kashmir Despatch that “Couple of time we have written to concerned authorities but no positive response had been received so far. No, we hope the Lt Governor will make personal favor for our prolong grievances” he said.
Meanwhile, the Government has not put any proposal on board for Diploma Engineering holders, to set up a full-fledged engineering college or increasing the intake Capacity of seats in universities and engineering colleges across the state. However, it has also been witnessed that the enrollment ratio in Polytechnic Colleges is witnessing a considerable decrease from past academic session. Somehow many students who are financially sound moving outside the state for their higher education program, but the majority of students who belong to weaker sections of society didn’t fill their dreams, because of financial constraints.
The initiative of setting up the polytechnic colleges across J&K by All India Council for Technical Education was to Upgrade the Technical Education set-up with an aim to upscale and support the ongoing efforts to improve the Technical Education sector. So that the Technical institutes become dynamic, demand drew and forward-looking, with the response to rapid economic and technological developments occurring both at the national and international levels. However, the initiatives under Technical Education flagship programs need serious thought.
When this newspaper called upon secretary Higher Education Mr. Talat Parvaiz he told Kashmir Despatch that” the universities and engineering colleges have their academic set-up as we can’t interfere with their academic proposal”
When this correspondent called Upon Dean Academic Affairs Kashmir University he told Kashmir Despatch that ” We have to adhered the guidelines from All India Council for Technical Education New Delhi, as they have set up some guidelines which state that the enrollment in Lateral Entry programme should be 10 percent of the total Intake in four year B Tech prograame” he further added that if AICTE will forward us new guidelines regarding increasing the intake Capacity we will then go far that”.
When this correspondent called upon the Office of All India Council for Technical Education New Delhi an official handout told this reporter over the phone that ” we have already set up some norms for lateral entry scheme. If JK students are facing such hardships the concerned state Administration must write to our office then we look accordingly”.
