Thanks Murtaza Amin for the post on Higher Education in India. I 100% agree to it.
Last weekend I was invited by one of the top colleges in S. India – to conduct ‘Mock Interview’ for their MCA 2nd year students. My interview partner was the AVP-HR one of the top NBFC group based out of S. India.
More than doing a mock interview session, we had a great time advising and motivating the students…
These are my observations/ views also shared by my partner:
1. Other than for 1 or 2 exceptions, all of them did BCA as their grad and joined for MCA – “just to do a PG”! When ask why – they just don’t know why, no one ever asked them!
2. Someone felt that going for MCA will help then learn C++ better, because they learn on C for BCA. Lucky we don’t have a C+++, otherwise these colleges will start DCA also
3. Most of the girls think that they will have a better positioning in marriage market.
4. Most of the boys think that they will have a better positioning in marriage market.
5. Most of them seems to have read in <a leading local daily> that doing MCA will fetch them a better job.
6. All of them don’t have any idea of the job they are going to do when they join a company – even after spending 4.5 years of their peak youth.
7. They don’t know anything about the industry they are entering into – companies, jobs, market, future, education options, academics etc…
8. They just don’t consider companies other than Wipro, TCS, Infosys etc as their prospective employers – the reason here is also primarily the marriage market, not their career growth or not even money!.
9. Majority of them don’t know how to communicate. I’m not commenting on their English – they don’t know how to communicate in any of the languages.
10. All of them have C/C++ in their CVs as their only language and just don’t know who is K&R and don’t know how to write a program, compile and make it unless then have Turbo C in front. They don’t know whats #include <stdio.h> is all about. Most of them have never seen an executable made by their C/C++ programs.
11. They don’t have any programming skills (and all relevant skills), basic knowledge about data structure, algorithms etc.
12. Most of their decision are influenced by ignorant teachers, parents, friends and media – event if they think otherwise. They don’t have an opinion of their own – even after becoming adults!
My Advice was mostly around:
1. You wasted the most precious 4.5 years of your life
2. You have 3 more semesters to correct what all you are missing
3. Its your life, you are in charge – you make decisions – not your parents, uncle/aunts, teachers, friends, relatives etc…
4. Work on your skills. Skills are different from knowledge – you need to develop it – whereas you can acquire knowledge in various ways.
5. Read/Listen/Speak/Watch Movies etc., so that you gain exposure and attain the right mind-set/attitude
6. Support your peers – collectively you can work on your shortcoming in the coming 3 semesters.
I really felt pity seeing most of them – victims of ‘excel to get a degree – not knowledge’ mentality, most of them are going to become slaves with some IT companies. Some of them will endup in teaching – circle of life!
But found few originals among them with a sense of direction and purpose for life!
Murtaza Amin
Thank you for appreciating my post sir, I will add some more of my thoughts here.
Well, I really appreciate your concern for my fellow students, not a lot of cooperates are interested in this, as they have a lot of option available to hire from (to be precise 3.5 lakh fresh engineers every year)
and yes, most of the decisions of Indian students are not their own, mostly driven by their fellow friends or relatives who think that a degree in engineering would guarantee a job, and I don’t really feel that the students are at fault (and also not their mostly uneducated parents) well, by the way I’m a product of an another roadside engineering college in an another village in India, I didn’t even knew what IIT was when I got admission in 11th in my village.
I agree about the marriage market point that you mentioned, few friends of mine had the same thought in mind, they felt Pune is a better place to find a HOTTER GF, so let’s go to Pune, (and yes, you are right they paid around 4 lakh each)
Teachers, oh please sir, don’t get me started with this topic, I can write a book on this topic(oh, yes I shall think of this) teachers in India are the students who didn’t got a job elsewhere, so while doing their MS or ME from any other roadside college, they are working to get their pocket money.
And this is also because of the fact that Teaching as a profession is dull and also not that financially stable, we need to get more researchers to take teaching as a profession, it’s a Nobel way to return your part to the society.
Well, I work for a company in Bombay, and I’m a student too, so, as our company grew we thought of hiring some interns as we can add some value to their resumes and also get some cheap labor, but the worst part is that even after trying and trying very hard we couldn’t make them understand that you are suppose to come on time and not wear anything that you wear in your college, and also to not text while someone is talking to you, so we had to throw them out in 15 days.
English? ha ha ha, you must be kidding me sir, 90% of most of the Engineering college students cannot speak their thought in front of 10 people, be it Marathi English or Hindi.
Sorry for the brevity and being a Grammar nazi.
Skills? Sorry sir, but our mostly dumb and almost over smart teachers haven’t told us about this new thing called skills, we know Exams, we know Marks, we know Mugging facts, we can copy paste in submissions, we know Infosys we know TCS, Our system (thanks to those entire education minister who are millionaires now) haven’t had any regulations for learning skills, and also we need to encourage students to look beyond TCS and Infosys and work for start ups. It’s a better learning experience.
Sir, did I mentioned you about the AICTE grade of my college? Yes, sir you are right, we are a A grade college, and sir, let me tell me about the world class infrastructure, the super clean toilets the very pleasing greenery, the state of art class room, benches, projectors and everything, and also about our super expensive hostel with a swimming pool (Yes, sir you heard it right, we have a swimming pool)
Oh, teachers and labs? Sir, Im sorry all the money my parent college granted for Jalgaon branch got exhausted while creating all those hostels, infrastructure, pools, and everything, so now we don’t invest in teachers lab instruments and all those stud that is not needed to pass a exam.
Sir, our college has 7 other Engineering colleges, 10 Diploma College, and overall 27 colleges all across MP MH. And all of them are A grade, and yes we have an unofficial tie up with AICTE, they give us a A grade for every college we open. They are very kind sir, I thank all of the member of AICTE.
And well, let me also tell you one simple thing that I faced in my first year, I was the only student in class who stood up against the wind and to
Deepak Sharma
Wow, Just Wow… That’s Swiss honesty is the only reason why we trust them with our money too…