Jaipur: It seems that there are no takers for engineering seats in Rajasthan, as over 40,300 seats are lying vacant in engineering colleges after the first round of conselling. This will be a major setback for the state board technical education. As per the Board of Technical Education (BTE), out of 61,000 seats available, only 20,700 students have appeared in the first counselling that closed on Saturday.
As per BTE, around 60,000 students were declared eligible for admission in 61,000 seats available at 134 engineering colleges in the state. Many eligible candidates didn’t attend the counselling sessions in the colleges affiliated to RTU.
S K Singh, Coordinator of BTE, Jodhpur, stated that only, 20,700 students appeared for counselling till the last date. In terms of percentage, this year the figure is the lowest. Moreover, almost half-a-dozen colleges have not received a single student during counselling. Another 10 colleges have not touched double digits against bare minimum of 420 students in each college.
As per sources, out of 134 engineering colleges, around 20-30 colleges will declare a 'zero session', while transferring their students to other colleges. The figure will go down as the results of joint entrance exam for 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) will be announced on July 7. A few hundred students are likely to be selected to NITs.
As per information, recently, nine engineering colleges were closed and four new colleges, run by established brands, begin their maiden journey. The poor response has created job insecurity for hundreds of teachers and administrative staff in technical colleges.
The poor response from neighbouring states is the major reason for this setback. This year, only 1,300 students applied for admission from other states. While previous years, the highest figure of other states students were 12,000 in 2009.
