The latest figure of applicants for EAMCET—as on April 1, 2011, is 3, 46,356 which is nearly 37,000 less compared to last year, according to Convener Ramana Rao. He is confident that there would be more applications towards the end, since the entrance exam has been postponed to May 22. The convener is optimistic even as the demand for engineering this year has dropped by 15.4%, while there has been a 25% hike in medicine. When asked if Eamcet was losing its charm, he quickly said that engineering in general was not wooing students as much as it did earlier. He also feels the 50% cut off is a blessing in disguise as it filters out the not-so-deserving candidates.

Once considered as a prestigious course, a gateway to a secure future and an attractive salary package, the question today is, ‘Is Engineering losing its charm?’ While some experts attribute it to recession, there are many aspirants who blame the poor quality of engineering institutions which is leading to a fall in number of engineering aspirants in AP. Experts feel that engineering doesn’t have the same attraction it had some years ago. A gradual drift has been seen in the profession—even in engineering it’s only the software. A major reason for the decline is that engineering students want quality education followed by a placement than a mere degree. Seats lying vacant say it all.

Is engineering no more a favourite course? Is medicine regaining its popularity considering the sale of Eamcet-2011 applications?

Is All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) 50% cut off marks in Intermediate for EAMCET going to ward off more aspirants?
Along with the above there is always the challenge of facing/answering erroneous questions. With issues like these can one still give a vehement ‘Yes’ to the question “Is engineering and Eamcet as luring as it was before?” Well, TCG probed into the actual ‘spell’ of EAMCET, engineering speaking to a few experts in industry, education and students.

Prof Ramana Rao, Ph.D. (Mech Engg) Retired, worked in Industry and Academics for over 40 years. Currently, he is Consultant and Advisor for a few industries and Academic / Training Institutes.He says, the Entrance Test for admission to the Professional courses in Engineering, Agriculture and Medicine has evolved to maintain the academic standards of the courses by preventing the unqualified students to enter, mainly due to the non-reliability of the Intermediate Board Examination Evaluation system. However, he feels, recently EAMCET is losing its popularity, with a large percentage of eligible students opting not to appear, causing a mini-crisis. He looks at the following as some factors contributing to this:

· Multiple controlling bodies like A.I.C.T.E., State Board of Technical Education and the Universities that grant affiliation have different approaches / conflicting interests in overseeing the colleges. Coordination among them seems to be missing.

· The policies of the State governments to allow proliferation of colleges without proper infrastructure, mainly going by political and financial considerations.

· Professional Education in A.P. and Southern states is a massive and easy business, attracting non-academicians like politicians, actors and real-estate owners to enter and make a fast buck.
 
· Allowing private colleges to admit students without EAMCET pass, under “NRI” and “Management” quota, depending on their clout.

· Strangely, due to the availability of seats and shortage of qualified students, the pressure by college Managements to reduce the qualification marks further, to protect their financial viability.

· This year, the politically motivated agitations in A.P. causing enormous damage to the academic schedules, classes and examinations.

· With the collapse of the financial sector  and depression in US and West, many students, who were earlier banking on US citizenship as their only hope in life, realized that the higher studies in US route is no more attractive hence preferring traditional courses.

· The alternate job-potential in India in booming sectors like Agri- product –business, food supply chain, Healthcare, hospitality, Life-style developments are found to be the alternatives to routine EAMCET-oriented courses. Many innovative and mature students are choosing them instead of software jobs.

· Over a period of time, the repetitive EAMCET pattern has been exploited by private “Coaching Centers”. Many intelligent students / parents do not like to undergo this financial and physical ordeal for a seat in a professional college, which is available anyway by other means.

In spite of most of the above factors, EAMCET is likely to exist, Common Admission Procedure.
Satyanarayan, Project coordinator Gurukulam –APSCHE says most of the software employees come from non-IT background. After four years of chemical/textile/civil or mechanical these professionals call quits with the domain they are into and enter a new ‘Gaming Zone’. While most of us cannot figure out the reason behind this Raj has a convincing explanation as to how some non-IT people take to software as fish to water.

Raj, B Com, LLB who is now into Marketing Division of a reputed software company, says “for someone to be in Software industry (specially coding, development, testing etc) it needs comfort levels with logic. It is all about logic. If I were hiring, I would be keen to have someone who has aptitude to get logic faster than otherwise.” Apparently to acquire specific software coding skills, it is easy if the logic is there.

Clubbed with the entry barrier being relatively easy, pay becomes the next best thing to happen. Who would not want that?
While students like Ghouse Jani and Lalitha Ravinuthala who were EAMCET toppers last year say they are very happy with their decision to take up professional course after EAMCET. In fact, they say EAMCET had been a great platform for them to fulfill their aspirations. The meticulous training and intensive coaching they went through helped them crack EAMCET with ease and confidence.

Back to the pavilion, TCG also interacted with EAMCET Convener Ramana Rao who says EAMCET is a great gateway which opens doors to the hard working and those who are really serious about becoming ‘something’ in life.  He says a comprehensive and competitive exam like this hones intelligence, shows direction to those who are serious about their career. Following are the excerpts of Ramana Rao’s views with TCG.

TCG: Is the trend more towards medicine? If so why?

Convener: Could be possible, it is obvious that
the health industry is picking up and there is lot of scope in the medical services. This could be attracting students and also one reason in increase in applicants for EAMCET medicine. Also we cannot claim that we are totally out of recession, we are still transitioning out of the eclipse.

TCG: But it is said that recession has not really hit India that bad because we are still in the expansionary phase and didn’t reach the peak of our potential?

Convener: True, things are improving, but the output of engineers is much more compared to the need. In other words, perhaps earlier the requirement was five but now they need ten, and we are producing thousands. Again IT as usual is bouncing back compared to other disciplines like mechanical and civil, but its not full-fledged still. ECE has a standard trend, maintaining a steady graph.

TCG: It is said that students from all disciplines prefer to work in IT irrespective of their background/domain. What is your take on this?

Convener: According to what I have seen corporate bigwigs look for students having good communication skills and train them in IT within no time; hence we see the cream of civil and mechanical getting absorbed into IT.

TCG: Does this mean we are losing the cream in core sectors to the IT?

Convener: Yes. It has been happening for the last decade. In a way, recession drove back the students from these areas back to their original field. Again on the other side many are hooked to IT only as they find it lucrative and comfortable.

TCG: Could you elaborate on stronger background checks you have introduced to prevent malpractices in Eamcet -2011?

Convener: Eamcet 2010 witnessed Hi-Tech malpractice which once again shows the misuse of technology. It was done in a planned way where the miscreants operated from centers outside. Now we are using jammers and being more vigilant, particularly in sensitive areas, though it means more work and effort.

TCG: What is your advice to the students appearing for Eamcet this year?

Convener: I would specifically caution the students not to get into any kind of malpractices as the repercussions are very severe. We are fully equipped to catch the wrongdoers red-handed. Last date for applications without fine was March 16, till April 18, they need to pay Rs 1,000/, from April 9 to May 7, it would be Rs 5,000/ and from May 8-19 it would be Rs. 10,000.

TCG: There are many engineering colleges mushrooming every year, which makes the seat availability very easy. Are students losing interest because of this?

Convener: Not really. Students still go in for standard colleges only.
 
TCG: When are the results expected?

Convener:  Within three weeks after the exam. The actual ranks depend upon Intermediate results.

TCG: Is there any change in the exam/rank pattern?

Convener:  It remains same as last year.

TCG: Is the Telangana agitation forcing students to leave the State and study elsewhere?

Convener: Like all other fields even education has been impacted by this.

TCG: Were there any seats vacant last year?

Convener: Yes, around 50,000 seats, this year it could be more.

TCG: Do you plan to conduct Eamcet online?

Convener: Not really, because not all students, especially in the rural areas would have a computer or even electricity supply for that matter to take this exam.

TCG: What is your advice to the aspirants?

Convener: Please stick to the question paper format only, not exploring or trying to learn anything new. Also, do refer to the previous years question banks.

Well, like the proverbial two sides of the coin, there is a positive and negative side to every story be it EAMCET or KCET or any education policy. We hope these views will be taken in the right sense and usher readers towards constructive thinking.