Stories
India Produces Millions of Engineers, but Still Uses 1960s Exam Systems
M
Moneycontrol•06-10-2026, 12:36
India Produces Millions of Engineers, but Still Uses 1960s Exam Systems
- •India produces over a million engineering graduates annually with enrolment reaching an eight-year high, yet studies show only a quarter to a third are industry-ready.
- •The current assessment system relies heavily on time-bound, paper-based end-semester exams designed in the 1960s that emphasize rote learning over practical skills.
- •Scaling paper-based exams leads to major challenges in integrity, delayed evaluation feedback, and a lack of relevance to modern engineering roles like coding and data analysis.
- •Transitioning to modern online examination platforms enables scalable security, automated evaluation, live coding tests, and actionable performance data for institutions.
Key Questions Answered
Multiple studies over the past decade indicate that roughly a quarter to a third of total engineering graduates are considered industry-ready.
Traditional paper-based exams fail to test modern requirements like live coding, data handling, and practical problem-solving under constraints, while also posing severe logistical and security risks at scale.
Online platforms can maintain integrity and test real-world capabilities using randomized question banks, AI-based remote proctoring, browser lockdown, behavioral anomaly detection, and live coding environments.
