Converting private polytechnics colleges into engineering colleges in TN - Whats happening?
Every year, the student enrolment in the polytechnic colleges has been decreasing across the state of Tamil Nadu is known. In this situation, the management of polytechnic colleges across the state have been trying to convert them into engineering colleges.
In Tamil Nadu, there are 55 government, 32 government aided and 430 private polytechnic colleges functioning. These colleges offer 3 year diploma courses in civil, mechanical, agriculture, manufacturing, electrical and electronics, electronics and communication, instrumentation and control, information and communication, textile, computer applications, biomedical, biochemical, logistics automobile and printing etc. Information is that there are about 1.62 lakh seats available for the students in these polytechnic colleges.
In the last few years, even though student enrolment in the govt polytechnic colleges has increased but students enrolment in private polytechnic colleges have come down. In the academic year 2022-23, 68888 students have joined polytechnic colleges in TN. In the academic year 2023-24, 63561 students have joined polytechnic colleges. In the last academic year, just 58426 seats were filled in the polytechnic colleges in TN. As a result, 17 polytechnic colleges were shut down in TN.
The shocking piece of information is that in this academic year permission has been sought from the DOTE to close 15 polytechnics across Tamil Nadu.
According to some officials belonging to DOTE it was clear that in TN permission has been sought to close down 4 polytechnic colleges in Kanniyakumari district. In the same manner, permission has been sought to close down 2 polytechnic colleges in Chennai, 2 in Namakkal and 2 in Erode districts. Permission has also been sought to close down 1 polytechnic college present in the districts like Tirrupur, Dindigul, Kancheepuram, Trichy and Sivagangai districts. Documents have been attached mentioning the exact reason for low enrolment of the students.
As per the AICTE or All India Council for Technical Education new regulations, the existing buildings of educational institutions could be used for other courses also. In this scenario, the polytechnic colleges have decided to cancel their polytechnic licences and convert them into engineering colleges.
It is noteworthy that after the completion of polytechnic courses successfully various job opportunities would be available. Truth is that the engineering courses offer high salaries and hence the students prefer to join engineering courses. This was responsible for low enrolment of the students in the polytechnic colleges across Tamil Nadu.
