Poor Quality of Students are entering IITs: Narayana Murthy

IITs are considered as the centers of excellence in the country. IITs have constantly gained the top position in the university rankings. But for the first time in last 9 years, not even a single IIT has made their place in the ranking of the top 500 universities in the world.

Being consistent in the news, there is yet some news about the institution. At a summit in New York, while addressing a bunch of former IITians at a ‘Pan IIT' summit, Narayana Murthy raised his discontentment over the quality of students being recruited by the institution. He said that the quality of engineers is deteriorating by every passing year due to the coaching classes that prepare engineering aspirants.

He also said that there is an emergent need to revamp the whole selection criteria for students seeking admission to the prestigious technology institutions. He also stated that the maximum number of students execute badly at jobs and global institutions of higher education. The ratio of quality students at IITs is unequal as 20% are the best students who crack the tough IIT entrance examination and are best and can stand anywhere in the world. Quality of the remaining 80% students is in vain.

Coaching classes prepares students as how to solve the problems and it puts a little focus on the independent thinking of the student and somehow they crack the entrance exam. Due to this reason, they perform badly in jobs or when they come for higher education in institutes in the US. He said there is a need of hour to correct such practices and some useful measures should be taken in the direction.

He sketched a road map to put back the IITs amongst the top institutes in the world. It has to be ensured that IITs go beyond from being just teaching institutions to good research institutes. Some of the IITs have done a great job in producing PhDs but in reality it has a long way to go.

Improvement Index:

• It should emphasis on the research and examinations at the undergraduate level and should put due emphasis on independent thinking of students rather than their ability to solve problems.
• The Indian government has to be persuaded to create institutions that fund research projects; this will produce desirable research at IITs.
• Evaluation of faculty members annually on their research performance by an independent committee.
• To enhance the English speaking and social skills of students.
• Need to have a governing council of IITs made up of its alumni.

Moreover, IITs can be improved if 80-90 per cent of members on their governing council are alumni because they worry more about the institution.

He also added that, an IITian has to be a global citizen and must understand the movements of globe. IITians are spread across the globe to work with their alma mater to ensure that IITs are among the top 10 engineering schools of the world.

Source: Richha Bhatnagar (Shiksha Team)