Ask & Answer: India's Largest Education Community

The system of lateral entry into engineering colleges must be stopped, M. Anandakrishnan, Chairman, Madras Institute of Developmental Studies, and former Vice-Chancellor of Anna University, said on Monday. Responding to a query from reporters on the recent communication of the All-India Council for Technical Education that B.Sc. Students could pursue B.E. /B.Tech in technical universities through lateral entry, he said it would only help to fill unsold seats in engineering colleges and cause a collapse of Science and social science education. Even Diploma holders should not be admitted under the lateral entry system, he said, stressing the importance of making ITI, Polytechnic, and engineering programmes skill-intensive. At present, they were only theoretical and conventional. Likewise, Science education must be made application-oriented. The country needed good scientific talent. To make Science education flourish, the career prospects of Science graduates should be made attractive. Calling for a concrete education policy, he said the higher education set-up was sending wrong signals that the future lay only in engineering and medicine. "The National Knowledge Commission should give a framework for higher education rather than taking recourse to well-known cliches, " Mr. Anandakrishnan said. To a question on the methodology to be adopted for admitting students to professional courses, he said bunching of students with the same cut-off was not uncommon. In the absence of the entrance examination, the number of students with the same score could be more. Scores in individual core subjects in the order of significance, total marks and the performance in language papers were likely to be considered for sequencing. The abolition of the entrance examination, he said, would increase chances for students of rural areas to go in for professional courses. So far, only 30,000 out of 2.5 Lacs rural students could make it to professional courses as against 70,000 out of one Lacs urban students. He said the Institute would focus on issues relating to women development, rural education, water management and health management.