Second chance to become an engineer

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, June 8, 2007
For students who have harboured dreams of becoming an engineer but were not able to get through the JEE, there is hope yet.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has released a circular directing all the engineering colleges in the country to admit students who have their passed BSc, through a lateral entry exam in the second year of engineering courses.
So long only students who had completed their diploma from polytechnics were given a chance to take lateral admission to the second year in engineering colleges. They had to take an exam known as Joint Entrance Exam for Lateral Entry (JELET) conducted by West Bengal Joint Entrance Board. But from this year, students who clear their BSc exams with maths as one of their combination subjects and score above 60 per cent in aggregate will be able to take the JELET exam. If they are successful, they will be eligible to take admission in private engineering colleges along with Jadavpur University and Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU).
But willing candidates will to have to wait for a year. This year’s JELET exam is already over and results are due in a week’s time. “By the time the circular arrived the JELET exam was already over. I do not think that it will be possible to organise another exam this year. It will be better if we start it from next year,” said Sajal Dasgupta, director of technical education.
But the SFI wants the BSc pass-outs to get the benefit from this year itself. “We have spoken to the higher education minister Sudarsan Roychoudhuri, and have urged him to take steps so that BSc pass-outs can be eligible from this year itself and we are confident that it will be done,” said Sudip Sengupta state president of SFI. “We know that the JELET exam for this year is over, but another exam can be arranged and we would not mind if these students join their classes in August instead of July,” he added.
This move by AICTE has opened new doors for the BSc graduates. “Our state does not have much scope for higher education and by completing the engineering degree, plain graduates will become more employable,” said Sengupta. “There are certain courses such as computer science and electronics where the polytechnic students cannot fill up the seats and these seats can be filled up by the BSc pass-outs,” he added.
However, implementing it from this year itself will not be an easy task. “The syllabus of JELET is made, keeping in mind the course content of polytechnic students. We need to have separate question papers following the BSc syllabus for these students. And to all this we need time and in no way can the exam be held this year itself,” said Ashim Bose, member secretary of the joint entrance board. Not only this, students now have the option of doing BSc in several subjects with maths as one of the electives and the government will have to decide students having BSc honours degree in which subjects will be allowed to take the JELET exam.
Every year, the state provides 10 per cent seats for students who come though lateral entry. This year there are 17,000 engineering seats available for successful WBJEE candidates, which means that JELET candidates will have 1,700 seats. “Sometimes students leave their seats even after taking admission in first year. Apart from the 10 per cent seats set aside, colleges can also fill up the vacant seats through JELET. This move will help both the colleges and students,” said S.R. Islam, registrar of West Bengal University of Technology, to which all 64 private engineering colleges in the state are affiliated.
mou.hindutsantimes@yahoo.com