Struck by reality, BE students quit course to pursue science
Securing admission to engineering or pharmacy is easy, pursuing it is not. After spending up to two years, many students realise this and drop out to join BSc
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Wednesday, July 11, 2012 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=2012071120120711020234332ea851e58)
» Ronak Dave from Amreli joined civil engineering at a Bhuj college under family’s pressure. After failing to clear maths paper in four semesters, he chucked engineering to pursue BSc at MG Science Institute in city.
» Kamal Kishore went to Karnataka to study electronics and communication as his parents wanted him to become an engineer. After two years, he realised it was not his cup of tea. He came back to the city and joined CU Shah.
» Prerna Chaudhary gave up civil engineering at Nirma Institute of Technology after struggling for fours semesters. She sought admission to BSc at CU Shah Science College after becoming aware of her aptitude.
Faced with the problem of dwindling numbers that threatened viability of natural science education at undergraduate level, colleges in city are pleasantly surprised to see students quitting engineering and pharmacy courses to pursue bachelor of science.
They become aware of the ground reality after going through the grind of professional courses. Besides, admission under peer pressure and lack of infrastructural facility and faculty at the colleges are other reasons.
Principals of science colleges in city say that a proliferation of engineering and pharmacy colleges in the state has led to dwindling of enrolment in BSc programme and trusts running the colleges at one point of time began worrying about the viability of running the course.
With a large number of professional colleges coming up in the state and the government relaxing admission criteria, many students joined them even if they did not have the aptitude and ability, say some science college principals. Despite Gujarat Technological University allowing ATKT (allowed to keep term), they find it difficult to complete the course. And once the romance is over, they drop out and come to study basic science, said MG Science Institute of Principal B K Jain.
Rohit Verma is one of them. He was pursuing electronics and communication at a Visnagar college. “I went for EC as it looked attractive. However, I could not cope with the drawings and assignments. It was adding to my stress and I was losing my balance, so I opted out and took up BSc at MG Science,” he said.
“It is actually a red signal for society and policy-makers who might be thinking that creation of more professional colleges will lead to more qualified professionals. I think the number of such students (engineering and pharmacy dropouts) will only increase in coming days,” Dr Jain added.
Gujarat Technological University, too, is aware of the falling standard of the education. Perturbed with the low grades of its students, it devised a way of shoring up their performance. It decided to take into account the grades of only the last year, that is the seventh and the eighth semesters, while preparing the final cumulative grade as it found more students had more number of ATKT in the initial years that dragged their grade at the end of the four-year course.
GTU took several steps to help such students clear examination. It redesigned its syllabus to make it student-friendly, introduced tutorials for students and organised orientation for teachers of papers in which students scored less. It even adopted liberal assessment. “But the fact that so many students are dropping out of professional courses, indicates the flaw in the admission process and criteria,” said a GTU official.
St Xavier’s College Principal Vincent Braganza, too, said the number of such students is increasing. “We give priority to such students as we know that they have realised their potential and interest. Interaction with them also reveals that some of them had got into engineering or pharmacy under parental pressure. They have already lost their time and resources, we know will now be devoted to science.”
Take the case of Meet Chaudhary whose maternal uncle got him admitted to Nirma Institute of Technology. The uncle paid the fees, but Meet got ATKT in the first two semesters. Faced with the burden of a large number of papers and increasing fees, his farmer father said he would not be able to support his education.
Meet dropped out of engineering and joined CU Shah Science College.
Fr Braganza has a word of encouragement for such students. “Science, too, offers good career options,” he said.
Many students are also joining BSc after getting disillusioned with the colleges they had joined earlier. “Some students have told me that their colleges did not have adequate physical infrastructure and faculty. They spent two semesters without proper guidance and hence failed to clear papers. As their ATKT papers increase they realise it is better to go for BSc than to pursue engineering,” Prof Anita Gharekhan, the principal of CU Shah Science College, said.
She put the share of such students in her college to about 12 per cent this year.
(Names of students have been changed to protect identity)
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Wednesday, July 11, 2012 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=2012071120120711020234332ea851e58)
» Ronak Dave from Amreli joined civil engineering at a Bhuj college under family’s pressure. After failing to clear maths paper in four semesters, he chucked engineering to pursue BSc at MG Science Institute in city.
» Kamal Kishore went to Karnataka to study electronics and communication as his parents wanted him to become an engineer. After two years, he realised it was not his cup of tea. He came back to the city and joined CU Shah.
» Prerna Chaudhary gave up civil engineering at Nirma Institute of Technology after struggling for fours semesters. She sought admission to BSc at CU Shah Science College after becoming aware of her aptitude.
Faced with the problem of dwindling numbers that threatened viability of natural science education at undergraduate level, colleges in city are pleasantly surprised to see students quitting engineering and pharmacy courses to pursue bachelor of science.
They become aware of the ground reality after going through the grind of professional courses. Besides, admission under peer pressure and lack of infrastructural facility and faculty at the colleges are other reasons.
Principals of science colleges in city say that a proliferation of engineering and pharmacy colleges in the state has led to dwindling of enrolment in BSc programme and trusts running the colleges at one point of time began worrying about the viability of running the course.
With a large number of professional colleges coming up in the state and the government relaxing admission criteria, many students joined them even if they did not have the aptitude and ability, say some science college principals. Despite Gujarat Technological University allowing ATKT (allowed to keep term), they find it difficult to complete the course. And once the romance is over, they drop out and come to study basic science, said MG Science Institute of Principal B K Jain.
Rohit Verma is one of them. He was pursuing electronics and communication at a Visnagar college. “I went for EC as it looked attractive. However, I could not cope with the drawings and assignments. It was adding to my stress and I was losing my balance, so I opted out and took up BSc at MG Science,” he said.
“It is actually a red signal for society and policy-makers who might be thinking that creation of more professional colleges will lead to more qualified professionals. I think the number of such students (engineering and pharmacy dropouts) will only increase in coming days,” Dr Jain added.
Gujarat Technological University, too, is aware of the falling standard of the education. Perturbed with the low grades of its students, it devised a way of shoring up their performance. It decided to take into account the grades of only the last year, that is the seventh and the eighth semesters, while preparing the final cumulative grade as it found more students had more number of ATKT in the initial years that dragged their grade at the end of the four-year course.
GTU took several steps to help such students clear examination. It redesigned its syllabus to make it student-friendly, introduced tutorials for students and organised orientation for teachers of papers in which students scored less. It even adopted liberal assessment. “But the fact that so many students are dropping out of professional courses, indicates the flaw in the admission process and criteria,” said a GTU official.
St Xavier’s College Principal Vincent Braganza, too, said the number of such students is increasing. “We give priority to such students as we know that they have realised their potential and interest. Interaction with them also reveals that some of them had got into engineering or pharmacy under parental pressure. They have already lost their time and resources, we know will now be devoted to science.”
Take the case of Meet Chaudhary whose maternal uncle got him admitted to Nirma Institute of Technology. The uncle paid the fees, but Meet got ATKT in the first two semesters. Faced with the burden of a large number of papers and increasing fees, his farmer father said he would not be able to support his education.
Meet dropped out of engineering and joined CU Shah Science College.
Fr Braganza has a word of encouragement for such students. “Science, too, offers good career options,” he said.
Many students are also joining BSc after getting disillusioned with the colleges they had joined earlier. “Some students have told me that their colleges did not have adequate physical infrastructure and faculty. They spent two semesters without proper guidance and hence failed to clear papers. As their ATKT papers increase they realise it is better to go for BSc than to pursue engineering,” Prof Anita Gharekhan, the principal of CU Shah Science College, said.
She put the share of such students in her college to about 12 per cent this year.
(Names of students have been changed to protect identity)
