Dear Shrri Jugal Kalita
Congratulations to you and the co-authors- excellent article as suggestions
are very pragmatic and doable.
From your article, if I understood correctly, the basic thrust is to produce
significant number of engineering graduates to be at par with other states.
Number of engineering colleges is a corollary based on some assumed intake.
Upgrade of existing ITI and diploma institutes spread all over Assam is an
excellent idea and should be pursued immediately. Also at the same time while
dwelling on this approach of establishing new colleges, immediate step should
be to over-saturate the intake capacity of the existing two state engineering
colleges. With an incremental expenditure this can be easily achieved. Also
more B.Tech courses should be introduced in Tezpur university. And at the same
time during this conversion spree of existing polytechnics, new ones should be
created at more remote sites.
Just a small thought on the staggering number of new engineering colleges-I
think it is better not to scare the wits out of Assam government representative
by saying a huge number of engineering colleges will be required. Instead of
say 10 engineering colleges at X millions per college for an intake of 300 per
college requiring 10X millions, another option could be having one or two
single mega engineering college for say 2000-3000 student intake. Cost will
surely not be 10X but may be 2 or 3 X. Just a question of balancing cost versus
local aspiration to have a college at neighborhood. Your suggestion of
conversion of existing diploma institutes will any way lead to an equitable
distribution of engineering colleges through out the state. We have seen how
lackadaisical the state government has been in running its two existing
engineering colleges. On the other hand central government colleges like NIT,
NERIST may not fulfill the “number” demand as only a small % of seats
will be reserved for the state. An example is NERIST which must have produced
more Bengali graduates than Arunachalis. Similarly private engineering colleges
will appeal to only a certain section of the society due to higher fee
structure. For the general people of Assam, new state engineering colleges
with transparent admission policies offer the best hope. Establishing one mega
engineering college like Jadavpur university (which has an undergraduate
engineering intake of around 1000 students) at central location like Guwahati
or Nowgaon and additional normal size engineering colleges at other places in
Assam should be the way to go.
Only request is that this good article should reach those who are in a
position to take things forward.
Regards
Chittaranjan Pathak
PS- Thanks to Umesh for letting us know that authors have made a forceful
presentation to CM. Secondly a copy be forwarded to Education minister Ripun
Bora and DTE and VCs of Tezpur/Guwahati/Dibrugarh universities.
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