Engineering education is clearly on the decline going by the picture at the just-concluded certificate verification programme even as JNTU Hyderabad is bent on closing down engineering colleges.
On the last day of verification process in Telangana State, only 62,777 candidates got their certificates verified, which is mandatory for admission into engineering courses under Convenor quota. These are among the 1,04,373 candidates who cleared the engineering exam of the EAMCET out of the 1,28,162 candidates who appeared. However, 58,906 from the Osmania University region attended the verification out of the 79,043 who qualified in EAMCET-2015. The rest are from either the Andhra Pradesh or non-locals from the CBSE stream.
Telangana Engineering Admissions Officer Srinivas said that the average turn out this year was 69 per cent compare to 58 to 60 per cent in the previous years. Among the top 15,000 rankers 10,934 attended while 11,443 candidates attended from rankers between 15,001 and 30,000. Those who have not attended have presumably migrated to the neighbouring States or opted for IITs, NITs and IIITs.
Though the current intake capacity of engineering colleges in Telangana is 1.76 lakhs, officials say the number may come down to less than one lakh given the stringent norms being adopted by the JNTUH for renewing their affiliation. Around 40 colleges have already sought voluntary closure while many others applied for reduction in the intake.
