Quota seats go empty at mining college

http://www.telegrap hindia.com/ 1080806/jsp/ jharkhand/ story_9653008. jsp

AMIT GUPTA & SANTOSH K.. KIRO
Ranchi, Aug. 5: At least 149 seats, reserved for SC and ST students,
would go empty at the Indian School of Mines University (ISMU),
Dhanbad, this year.

Admission to this coveted mining engineering college was through
IIT-JEE, but ISMU authorities believe that out of a total of 612
seats, this year would record 149 vacancies, most of them in seats
reserved for students belonging to Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled
Caste (SC) categories.

At IITs, too, initial calculations suggest about 432 seats would remain vacant.

This trend, both at ISM and the IITs, is a direct fallout of six new
IITs that have been commissioned by the Centre leading to an increase
in the number of quota seats.

"Out of 159 seats reserved for SC/ST students, only 10 SC category
students got admission to the BTech course," said T Kumar, ISMU
director. "No one from the ST category has got admission."

If it's any consolation, 99 students had been chosen from both
categories to be admitted to ISMU's preparatory course which would
equip them to join the main course next year. These students, 34 more
than last year, would be trained in basic physics, chemistry,
mathematics, English and Hindi.

These students, who qualified through the IIT JEE, aren't as
proficient as their counterparts in the general or OBC categories.
"Hence they are trained for a year before they are inculcated into the
full-time programme," Kumar explained. "Only after completing the
training some of them would they be inducted into the first year BTech
course for the academic session 2008-2009," he added.

Tribal organisations are alarmed at this trend. Some even allege foul
play. "It is hard to believe that there is a dearth of talent among
tribal students. The vacancies of reserved seats in the IITs were
probably created because something went wrong somewhere," said Nishit
Ekka, secretary of the Tribal Medical Association.

Ekka pointed out that in 2005, only one boy had qualified to study
medicine in Jharkhand as against 12 in 2006. "However, after we
intervened and told the state to rectify the process of selection, the
number of tribal students who qualified for medical colleges increased
up to 38 in 2007. Also, 87 others qualified for medical colleges out
of the state," he noted.

Special secretary in the welfare department B.C. Nigam attributed the
issue to lack of coaching facilities for tribal students aspiring to
get into IITs. "Though there is no dearth of talent among tribals,
they fail to make the mark due to inadequate opportunities, " he said.

He said Jharkhand needed to focus on imparting high quality coaching
for IIT aspirants so that they could qualify in the entrance
examinations. The welfare department, he added, ran various schemes
through which it financed coaching for tribal students aiming to
become doctors, engineers or civil servants.

But as of now, these are yet to show results.

knommases @ 21.11.2008 04:05 IST
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-employers do not use recruiters in recessions because they cost money
-job boards are flooded with applicants

People just do not look for jobs on employer websites. There are thousands of employer websites in most cities and many of the job sit on there for months without applications.

This is where most of the jobs are and I found this far more effective than other means.

I started using a research jobs site called Hound that I do not think anyone knows about because it is run by a small company that does not advertise.

All Hound.com does is show you unadvertised job openings that are not publicly advertised and are located on employer websites.

Very few people realize that most employers post their job on their own sites and not on job boards like Monster, CareerBuilder, etc. because these sites charge employers up to $500 to post a single job. In my experience (I am getting more interviews that I ever have), your chances of getting interviews and hired are much better when you are applying to jobs that are not advertised that no one knows about.

I have gotten a ton of interviews through the Hound site. If you are looking for a job I would highly recommend using Hound . What most people do not realize is that most jobs are found on employer websites and not job boards. Hound puts all of the jobs it finds from employer websiste (every Fortune 500, Inc. 500 and other company it can locate) on its site.

When you start seeing sites advertise themselves a lot that should be a warning sign of sorts because that means that lots of people will start going and applying to the jobs. I really trust Hound because it does not advertise. You can find the site at http://www.hound.com