A system churning out engineers (a.k.a cheap labour)

Recently exposed bogus mark-sheet scandal in Tamil Nadu reinforces the point that our systems, processes and our mindset are not geared up to meet ethical standards, leave alone global competitive standards. This scandal has indeed exposed the greediness in us; the greediness for power that exists in all layers of a society.

Being an engineer thirty years ago was regarded something special and engineers were held in high respect then. But these days, an engineering degree is more common that every second person you meet from a middle-class and upward family is an engineer. Five years ago Tamil Nadu (TN) had 230 engineering colleges...almost half of what we have now. TN government abolishing the common entrance exam four years ago has forced students to vie even for 0.01 marks. For every decimated fraction of marks approaching the 100%, you have thousands of students competing. This is the case almost in any state though in varying proportions.

Though the rise of IT in India cannot be blamed fully for this situation, it has a equal role to play. As cheap goods from China are not the goods sought out for, engineers from India will soon become a chunk of cheap labour that the world will not seek out for...both of them will be used in day-to-day life and will be dumped in the back-yard...

Learn it in your native tongue... in your own way !!

Four years from now we will see engineers with more concrete basics who had opted for studying in Tamil medium. Had there been no Tamil in the engineering entrance question paper side-by-side to English, I swear I would have score 2-3 marks less. Reading it in my native tongue increased my comprehending speed and avoided any ambiguous situation. I had then dreamed of studying engineering in Tamil, and now it is a reality. Yes, from this year onwards selected colleges will offer Civil and Mechanical streams in Tamil.

Some might argue that Tamil-engineers cannot cope up with the current industry which is services based. But at the end of the day what matters is how much of an engineer you are rather than how much of a communicator you express. It all depends on what people consider as success...Being an engineer or being a fluent English speaker. We can study the degree in Tamil and still learn to communicate in English, but not the other way round. When the whole world is embracing web2.0, Let's embrace this next step with pride.