Why St Peter's Group of Institutions does not want to ban mobile phone on campus and encourage digital education

Students want good jobs, not good education and this is what is most unfortunate, says TV Reddy, Secretary-cum-Correspondent of St Peter's Group of Institutions
St Peter's Engineering College | (Pic: St Peter's Engineering College)
St Peter's Engineering College | (Pic: St Peter's Engineering College)

Everyone knows St Peter's High School in Hyderabad, but do we know the story of the St Peter's Group of Institutions and how they started their operations in Hyderabad? To learn more about it, we get in touch with TV Reddy, Secretary-cum-Correspondent of the college and, over a conversation, he tells us how they ventured into technical education and what is on the cards in the future. Excerpts:  

The Chairman of St Peter’s Engineering College is T Bala Reddy, the Director is T Saroja Reddy and the Principal is Dr M Narendra Kumar

So, tell us how you began.
We actually started in Warangal in 1980 and then, we began St Peter’s High School in Hyderabad in 1999. It was in 2006 when we decided to start operations in Hyderabad. We started in Kompally because it is a well-connected area. Today, we are graded A by NAAC and offer many courses including UG, PG and diploma. 

Tell us about your staff and what you look for when hiring them.
We have a good number of PhDs on our staff and they are there in every department to ensure that they can help others in this domain and overall, help in improving research. We also encourage our faculty members to pursue training courses, write papers and we even fund them. We also hire people from the industry and those who know what the industry wants. 

Many congratulations: Career Guru Award being presented | (Pic: St Peter's High School)

What is your view on cellphones on campus? What are you doing to encourage digital education? 
We don't want to ban mobile phones on campus as that is not possible anymore. We allow students to bring them and provide facilities like lockers where they can leave their phone. We provide login access to a portal where students are given free access to lectures by esteemed professors and other kinds of content that might interest them.  

What does the future look like for St Peter's?
We are aiming for autonomous status. Once we become autonomous, we are hoping to introduce courses that will be relevant to the industry. Once the students pass out, they should be ready for the industry. We also want to tie up with several industries. Every department should have a tie-up so that each student can approach the industry for internships to learn and understand how the industry works and the kind of machinery that is used. In case students can do this, then there are more chances of the industry absorbing them. So, linking students with industries, that's the plan for the future. 

Companies like Dell, IBM, Wipro Cipla, TCS and more often visit their campus for recruitment 

Why do you think there are so many unemployed youngsters out there today?
When it comes to South India, a decade ago, the craze to pursue Engineering was high but today, it's true that most engineering students are unemployable. But the point is that everywhere, the story is the same - students are not equipped with skills, therefore, they become unemployable and a burden to society. Students want good jobs, not good education and this is what is most unfortunate. Most of them are thinking about getting jobs. They don't want to learn beyond a course, there is no aptitude and zeal to teach new skills in universities either. 

In our college, we allot one and a half hour of training and for those who attend, we offer free transport. There is free coaching as well, but only 5% of the students attend these classes every day. Though the percentage is steadily increasing, we want more and more students to take advantage of this. 

All smiles: Jubilant students at St Peter's Engineering College | (Pic: St Peter's Engineering College)

For more on them, click on www.stpetershyd.com

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