Chandigarh: Amid a craze of studying in foreign universities, there has been a massive reduction in student strength in technical universities that has led to closure of as many as 138 colleges of technical education in Punjab in the last five years.

In the technical colleges running, 55 per cent of the seats remain vacant. This is enough to reflect the future of technical education.

The details of the All India Council for Technical Education highlight the tragedy of technical education in Punjab. The number of technical colleges approved by this technical council has come down to just 255 in Punjab as against 393 in 2018-19.

There were 1.44 lakh seats in all these colleges in 2014-15, the number of which has come down to 71,762 in 2022-23. These technical institutes of Punjab are running diploma, graduate and post graduate courses in architecture, planning, engineering and technology, town planning, management, MCA, hotel management and pharmacy.

Large groups and colleges were locked when students turned away from their institutions. The opportunities for demand for technical skills in Punjab decreased and from 2016-17 onwards, the youth of Punjab turned to foreign countries.

At that time, 58,743 students had passed and out of these, 20,039 were placed. In the last seven years, 2.79 lakh students have passed from technical colleges, out of which 1.42 lakh have been placed.

There were 125 pharmacy colleges in Punjab in 2019-20, which has now come down to just 43. In four years, 82 pharmacy colleges have closed down.

In these years, the number of seats has also come down from 10,127 seats to 4223. Admissions to arts colleges have also fallen due to a flurry.

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