Only one student opts for Kannada medium engineering course

There were 42 seats available for Civil Engineering and 24 seats for Mechanical Engineering in Kannada medium

A file photo of students attending counselling in Bengaluru.

Despite the Union government’s push for technical courses to be taught in regional languages, the response has been very poor in the State. During the recently concluded CET-2022 counselling for engineering courses, only one student had chosen Kannada medium.

Of the 42 seats available for Civil Engineering and 24 seats for Mechanical Engineering in Kannada medium, only one student selected a seat for Civil Engineering.

SJC Institute of Technology, Chickballapur and Bheemanna Khandre Institute of Technology (BKIT), Bhalki, have permission to offer engineering courses in Kannada medium from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for the academic year 2022-23. 

Last year, five engineering colleges, including SJC Institute of Technology and BKIT, offered engineering courses in Kannada medium for the academic year 2021-22. Though four students opted for these courses during CET counselling, they later withdrew admissions from the colleges.

14,999 govt. quota seats vacant

Meanwhile, as many as 14,999 government quota engineering seats have been left vacant after the third round of CET-2022 counselling this year. Of the total 65,292 available government quota seats, 50,293 seats were selected by the students for the academic year of 2022-23. 

The highest number of seats are vacant in Mechanical and Civil Engineering streams: 5,614 and 4,933 seats, respectively. 1,063 seats for Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 758 seats for Architecture and 247 seats for Aeronautical Engineering also remain vacant.

In professional courses like B.Sc (Agri), B.VSc (Veterinary science) and others, a total of 376 seats have remained vacant. Karnataka Examinations Authority has surrendered all these unfilled seats to the concerned colleges for further process.

However, this is an improvement compared to the previous academic years 2021-22, when 23,100 government quota engineering seats remained unselected, highest over the past five years.

“Due to COVID-19, and various reasons, more than 23,000 government quota engineering seats were not filled last year. Compared to that, this year admissions have improved by over 8,000 seats in the government quota,” said Ramya. S, Executive Director, KEA.