Virtual Classrooms for Budding Engineers, Courtesy IITs.
Indian authorities want IITs to shed their aura of exclusivity and let it reach hundreds of engineering students of other colleges and institutes who are grappling with acute faculty shortages. It is not that the IITs are in an enviable position as regards students to faculty ratio is concerned. But through the National Mission on Education through ICT, authorities want the IIT course content to reach a wider audience. Government has earmarked roughly Rs 46 Bn for this cause. Brand IIT has remained an exclusive domain where ordinary mortals had little access. But this move may help not so lucky students of other engineering colleges to understand how and what exactly the IITians are taught.Brand IIT is such that a complete coaching industry thrives on it. Today even towns like Kota in Rajasthan and Kanpur(Kakadeo) in Uttar Pradesh have built one complete industry out of coaching wannbe engineers. US and other western world has also recognized brand IIT and it is reflected in many senior level positions held by IITians in US government, industry and academic world.
The initiative is commendable but care should be taken to let it not dilute the standards of education. Nothing can replace the the learning through classroom interaction. IITs employ classroom teaching followed by tutorials to make the subject and concept amply clear to the students. But given the standard of education of IITs, there still has to be good number of teachers at other engineering institutes to let students decipher what has been taught to them. In the absence of any follow up staff at other engineering colleges, the NMEICT exercise may not be able to do justice to its cause.
NMEICT is also timed well for IITs as many of their illustrious teachers have either retired or may be are on the verge of retirement. Pooling their knowledge and wisdom in a classified way, would definitely help the coming generations to admire with awe the aura and knowledge of illustrious IIT professors who followed the path of renunciating big pay packets and fat salaries to groom IITians.
As told to me by an IITian.
May also like to read: Why IITs Have Lost Sheen.
