D Suresh Kumar By

Students who want to join engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu would rather do some brainstorming before making a hasty decision as the quality of teaching in many institutions has been on a downswing.

The proof of this lies in the fact that not a single student studying in as many as 54 engineering colleges and two architectural institutions in the State has passed in even one paper in the first semester examinations. The results of the examination were declared by the Anna University last week.

An analysis shows that these institutions, all of them ranked 460th in a list of 537 colleges, are spread across the State including in and around Chennai and Coimbatore regions, which are considered to be excellent higher educational hubs. In fact, no college, including top ranked ones, have managed to achieve a cent per cent result.

The highest pass percentage is only 87.45. “This means more than 10 per cent of the engineering colleges have failed to impart quality education to students. Those who fail in the first semester are not considered eligible for campus placements by leading information technology companies, even if they come up with good performances in subsequent semester exams,” said a senior academician.

The overall pass percentage has been below 50 in a whopping 421 institutions. In other words, only 115 colleges can boast that at least 50 per cent of their students passed in different subjects. In 357 colleges, less than 40 per cent of the answer scripts have been cleared by their students. A single digit pass percentage has been recorded in 59 colleges.

Interestingly, at least three colleges which were previously disaffiliated by the Anna University for want of academic and physical infrastructure, figure among the institutions which have zero or single digit pass percentage.

“Before joining an engineering college, aspirants could use the examination results as one of the key yardsticks to zero in on their choice,” added the academician.