Jaipur: The closed
engineering colleges are fast turning into schools, ITI centres, degree colleges and other institutes in Rajasthan.
A grim reality, exposing the tall claims repeated several times by chief minister Vasundhara Raje, of state turning into a hub of technical education. Two colleges, marred by low students’ turnout, closed for years before they converted into schools. The smart classes, state of the art labs meant for engineering students are being used by school students. Over a dozen colleges have started offering BA, MA or commerce courses.
As per the state government data, over 60 engineering and 80 MBA colleges have closed down owing to poor admissions since recession (2011).
Jyotika Sachdeva, public relations officer of the IIS School in Sanganer, which was IIIT Engineering College, says that the college was converted into a school two years ago. “It is running well. The administration has no major changes for converting into a school,” said Sachdeva.
Schools being the safest and the most legal option to switch is a reason that in the next two years over a dozen engineering colleges will convert into schools from three at the moment.
Another trend coming up here is that management of colleges are injecting humanities or commerce or other professional courses to counter the disinterest in engineering. An engineering college in Jodhpur is awaiting permission to open state-of-art school of hospitality in its engineering campus. “I have invested 2.5 crore in developing lab or kitchens in my engineering college and made all possible modifications. I am hoping that the new course will recover the losses. If the response is good I am planning to open specialised courses to give students diversity,” said a director requesting anonymity.
State has present 94 engineering colleges reduced from the highest number of 164, including 21 evening colleges. The rush was so high in 2008-09 that several evening colleges were given the permission. Some of them have given land for rent to run coaching institutes in the garb of running courses. As per the rule, education institute can be through a society and not run any activity which is deemed commercial.
