By Sara D Benedicta Josna

Bengaluru: The Government Polytechnic Colleges are seeing a sudden surge in the admission. Around 96% of the seats have been filled in 85 government colleges. This has been noted as the highest admission rate in the past 15 years.

Statistics said that there was a drop in the admission rate in the year 2020-21 which was attributed to the Covid-19, the 2021-22 figure was said to be because of the all-promotion policy in SSLC.

“Even when the SSLC pass percentage was 100%, the seats were only 84% full. But this year there has been a marked difference. We have data of enrollment from 2008, when the figures were uploaded online. Since then, this is the highest ever admissions made,” said P Pradeep, commissioner, department of technical education.

The commissioner also said that the reason for the spike in the admissions was due to rigorous campaigns held in high schools. There were task forces instituted in each polytechnic college to visit high schools and educate the students on the option of polytechnic colleges. Also, there were brochures and videos based on the advantages of polytechnic colleges which was an addition to the curriculum revamp.

There has been a huge demand in government polytechnic colleges over the past two years after the revised curriculum was implemented, said Akash Sethi, CEO, Quest Alliance, a non-profit trust that works in the space skilled sector.

“In the coming years, vocational education should be integrated with secondary schools. National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 also mentions that the secondary schools should collaborate with ITI’s, polytechnics as well as the local industry over the next decade” he added.

A principal of a popular polytechnic college said that the timing of the admissions also mattered. “Usually, admissions to polytechnic colleges happen much later. This time the admissions began as soon as the SSLC results were out. This also helps in attracting a lot of students,” he said.

“We have revamped the curriculum and made it industry ready. Several new-age courses have been added. Infrastructure has been upgraded to smart classes. Students who are coming out are job ready. This is all in line with what NEP envisages,” said minister for higher education, CN Ashwath Narayan.

“In some colleges there have been gaps in infrastructure. All colleges have been allowed to keep the fees collected from students for development works,” said Pradeep.

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