Reality check for IITs in the educational framework
ANY news that puts the IITs in the dock becomes ‘juicy’ and the latest seems to be the extreme popularity of the computer science programme of IIT-Bombay. According to some, there could be a ‘revolution’ in the event of the programme being discontinued for a year.
A common charge is that basic research in the IITs and other Indian universities is not done by the BTech students produced by the IITs, but by those who pass out of other institutions. Evidently, research cannot be the focus of undergraduate (UG) education. IITs never claimed that through the JEE, they identify youngsters with great creativity. One of the best definitions of the scope of the JEE could be: “Where the examiners pose long and tough questions so that no one can finish the exam within the time allotted and a fair ranking of the students becomes possible. It is an eliminatory exam — the only way open while dealing with large numbers.”
Some studies have shown that there is no correlation between the students’ all-India ranks in the JEE and their performance in their careers. In addition, there are late developers. That is why GATE enables science graduates and late developers to move from science to engineering, if they so desire.
Due to brain drain, with the country providing limited opportunities, many IITians left India. Then, people asked why the Government of India should subsidise IIT education. The professors were criticised for being too theoretical. But the IITs braved the storm. Suddenly, the economy got liberalised.
The simultaneous blossoming of the IT industry in India and the emergence of many former IITians in the US as CEOs, CTOs and multimillionaires elevated the IITs in the eyes of the public and the IIT professors became ‘the creators of multimillionaires’. This triumph of IT also allowed foreign companies to look at Indian manufacturing and other industrial sectors favourably. This second revolution has just begun.
Cracking the JEE became a life-or-death obsession. The media kept alive this madness. There are many descriptions of IITs — ‘human stud farms’ that manufacture the creme de la crème of Indian intelligentsia; ‘producers of cyber/techno coolies’; ‘similar to the B-grade degree colleges of the USA’; ‘the producers of the only brand name of post-Independence India’. An article titled ‘The whiz kids of the IITs’ in US magazine Businessweek said the impact of the IITs on the US economy was more than that of Harvard, Yale, MIT and some other institutions put together.
In 1999, consultancy company McKinsey presented a report to then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee, which talked of a shortage of a million software engineers worldwide and the opportunities for India. The Central Government took over the Regional Engineering Colleges, renamed them National Institutes of Technologies, revamped the syllabi, and modernised the teaching. To satisfy regional aspirations, today there are 23 IITs all over India, with only five or six of the new IITs reaching anywhere near the old five in academic standards. A shortage of high-quality faculty is a major challenge.
Due to paucity of funds, the state governments allowed setting up of private engineering colleges. The conditions laid down by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) were input-driven, like the size of classrooms and staff-student ratio. No attention was paid to the outcomes. The difference in the quality of these institutions and the IITs is huge. This has led to the creation of a thriving coaching industry. A former COO of Tata Group company Titan said a few years ago that their franchise for an outlet in a major city was won by the owner of a coaching institute against stiff competition from moneybags. Such is the economic clout of the coaching institutes. In contrast, the emergence of some high-quality private educational institutions — such as VIT, SRM, Sastra, Jio, Shiv Nadar University, etc — has given rise to the hope that what the governments were unable to resolve may be remedied by the market forces. The grip of the coaching institutes will likely weaken only when there are many institutions of high quality.
I am hopeful about “staying back to restore India to her rightful intellectual prowess”. Today’s India has a lot to offer. The number of IITians leaving India is on the decline. Salaries across the board have risen and many Indian companies are internationally competitive. When I started my career in 1972, India’s GDP (gross domestic product) was $70 billion. Today, it is $3.5 trillion and India is the world’s fifth-largest economy. In a few years, it is expected to become the world’s third-largest economy. Being a part of this phenomenal growth is a thrilling journey. Can such an experience be compensated for by a few more dollars? The answer will depend on an individual’s values.
Caste-based reservations have their pros and cons. Several studies have revealed that diversity in industrial units leads to greater creativity. By keeping out the ‘creamy layer’ and ensuring strict enforcement of academic criteria within the norms laid down by the government, the IITs are enforcing academic standards.
The popularity of disciplines is market-dependent. In the 1950s, civil engineering was the most popular (period of hydroelectric projects, fertiliser, steel plants, etc). During 1970-1990, mechanical, electrical, chemical and metallurgical engineering ruled the roost so that the industries could be fed with skilled manpower. Then the era of computer science and engineering commenced and continues.
To prevent the start of a revolution on the closure of the computer science programme at IIT-Bombay for a year, the IITs cannot do “lousy” teaching. But the reader may rest assured that in the unlikely event of the computer science programme shutting down for a year, the parents and students could first curse IIT-Bombay and then the government. Soon they will sit together and choose 50 disciplines from the courses on offer, frequently consulting their friends in the IITs, and trudge towards the counselling halls on the allotted day!
