Over 4,400 students drop out of IITs, NITs in three years
New Delhi, Aug 5
More than 4,400 students dropped out of Indian Institutes of Technology and National Institutes of Technology in the past three years due to reasons that include academic stress, the Central Government told Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
As many as 2,060 students dropped out from various IITs from 2012-13 to 2014-15 while 2,352 students dropped out from the (NITs), Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani informed the Lok Sabha during Question Hour.
"The reasons for dropouts may be attributed to shifting to other colleges/institutions, personal reasons, medical reasons, getting jobs during PG courses, inability to cope with academic stress etc," Irani said in a written reply.
IITs witnessed 757 dropouts in 2014-15: higher than 697 dropouts (2013-14) and 606 (2012-13). IIT Roorkee saw the highest number of dropouts at 228, followed by IIT Kharagpur (209) and IIT Delhi (169).
Interestingly, there were no dropouts at IITs in Mandi, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Madras and Ropar in 2014-.
There are 16 IITs and 30 NITs in the country.
There were 717 dropouts from NITs in 2014-15: lower than 785 seen in the year-ago period. In 2012-13, the dropout numbers stood at 850.
Irani said there is a mechanism for helping students under stress.
Listing out various initiatives that are in place to minimise dropouts at IITs, Irani said there is a guidance and counselling unit, headed by a faculty member. It worked closely with a number of faculty counsellors and advisors to "identify students facing emotional difficulties and guide them to professional counsellors for help". — PTI
