The problem is not really one of production of civil engineers. The system produces enough of them. It is just that these people choose to enter the IT & related sectors rather than work as civil engineers because the perceived wages are significantly lower for the latter. Of course, government civil engineers can make a lot of money through graft and compromises - but clearly that is not enough to attract the bright young ones (who may even put some value on clean income). It is difficult to see how producing MORE civil engineers is going to rectify the situation. If anything, it will push down the wages for civil engineers in the private sector. The solution is clearly one of allowing compensation for civil engineers to rise competitively till there is no "shortage". As the public sector employs bulk of them, they need to act.
On a slightly different and more general note, the Indian education system engages in a colossal waste of resources when it trains hordes of bright people in advanced science, engineering and technology disciplines at the best public institutions of the country - only to have the products enter the IT sector in jobs bearing no relation to their education and training. A significant proportion of these IT jobs can be performed by student with secondary school education and half to one year of training. Instead, we see students competing ferociously to enter the top engineering schools (in disciplines ranging from aeronautical to metallurgical engineering) only to signal their relative strength of innate "cleverness" or IQ to INFOSYS and other most coveted employers in the IT sector. Santanu. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chan Mahanta Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 9:47 AM To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world Subject: [Assam] From NY Times - India's Civil Engineering Achievements India's Civil Engineering Achievements --NOT! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/business/global/26engineer.html _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
