Rural students steer clear of engineering

HYDERABAD: Sitting in his internet centre in Nalgonda town, K Venkanna sees Intermediate second-year students come to his establishment to upload applications for Eamcet, which have gone online this year. There haven’t been too many, he reports. He has heard Interstudents discussing options other than engineering.The allure of an engineering degree seems to have dimmed, especially in rural AP. Of the one lakh applications received so far for Eamcet engineering this year, only 20,000 are from rural students. The reason for the dip? Poor job prospects for rural engineering grads and students’ fear that the govt may pull out of the fee reimbursement scheme.S Narendra Chary is in final year of his B.Tech degree at an engineering college in Chevella. This year, Chary says, most of the Intermediate students from his village have decided to go on for a BSc. or accountancy degree rather than risk spending four years in an engineering college. No engineer from his village has landed a job in last two years.Parents feel that monthly expenses of sending their ward to engineering college are unaffordable if there is no job at the end of it all.