Five toppers at NIT have landed plum jobs with top Indian companies with Firdous-ul-Nazir getting the highest pay packet. Junaid Nabi Bazaz reports
Firdous-ul-Nazir, is one of the five students selected for top jobs at the campus placement event at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar. He is elated over to have been selected by the Indian Oil Corporation limited (IOC).
The pay package is good- Rs 9.25 lakh per annum. Hailing from Nagam area of district Budgam, Firdous qualified All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) in year 2008 with 106 points. Presently, he is studying in seventh semester of electrical engineering at NIT Srinagar. He has also been a topper in the class with 91.6 percent marks.
After passing senior secondary and higher secondary examinations from local government schools, Firdous did a coaching course from a local coaching institute.
“In Kashmir the most common thought among students remains about the quality of coaching. They think that without going outside for coaching, these (competitive) exams cannot be cracked. If I made it to happen here, why can’t they (do it)?” he asks. “The notion that coaching in Kashmir is not up to mark for cracking any national level entrance tests is wrong.”
After passing eighth standard from local private school, Firdous moved to his maternal home – forty five Km from his hometown for further study. However he came back to his native village and studied in the government higher secondary school.
“After I passed my eighth standard, my parents sent me to a private school in a neighbouring village, as there was no private high school in our village at that time,” he says. “But as the quality of education was same to that of our village government school I went returned to village school.”
Choosing science and math as subjects in class 11th, Firdous studied thoroughly for the next two years. He was aiming to crack AIEEE much before selecting the subject and put in a lot of effort to have clear concepts of the subjects he was studying.
While preparing for the entrance exams to professional courses, he preferred self-study over tuitions. “I had my concepts clear, the only thing that needed, was to explore them and that was done by simple practice. So there was no need of going to tuitions at that time,” recalls Firdous.
The only mantra for qualifying any engineering entrance exam, Firdous believes, is just systematic study and consistent efforts.
“Aspirants only need to clear their basic concepts followed by exploring them. They must study the text books prescribed by the state board thoroughly,” he believes.
He adds that some students believe that AIEEE can be qualifying by cramming the things. In fact, he says, it is one of the main reasons why most of students in Kashmir fail to crack the exam. “If students will refrain from cramming and instead will focus on clearing their basic concepts, large number of students will qualify the exam each year,” he hopes. Stating that Kashmiri students are capable of doing anything, he said, “They can excel in any field. The only thing they should have is right approach towards studies and confidence in them.”
Firdous, in working on a project titled “Design of wind turbine stimulator” which aims at producing electrical energy with the help of software. He says, “If this endeavor becomes successful, we will be able to generate electricity without wind energy.”
He credits his success to his teachers, parents and hard work. “This success is an overall outcome of combined efforts of teachers, who taught and trained me well, parents, who provided me every kind of support and my hard work,” he said while moving his hand over his beard.
Besides him four others Omer Farooq of district Pulwama, Mohammad Salahudin of district Kulgam and Shakeel Ahmad of district Rajouri have been selected from the state and one from outside the state, Tushar Ralhan of Himichal Pradesh have been selected for top posts.
Almost all the students of NIT get jobs at the end of their course, however, the toppers are given preference and corner high paying jobs.
