India’s premier educational institutions IITs, once the home for meritorious are now becoming the popular places for student exits.
The Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) made this shocking revelation to Lok Sabha in the ongoing winter Parliament session.
According to the Ministry, more than 7000 students dropped out of IITs in the mid of their engineering courses in the last 5 years.
With this, IITs and IIITs are seeking approval for providing exit option to students, informed the Ministry.
Unlike IITs, IIITs are not that willing to provide such option to the students struggling to deal with academic pressure. It feels that’s not a good option to control the rate of drop-outs.
While the IIT Council left the decision to respective institutions, MHRD at the Council directed the board of Governors of IITs to work on modalities for implementing the decision.
We do not intend to introduce an exit option as it creates a stigma about the student and is as bad as the student leaving the institution. Instead, trust the teachers at these institutes. They have lived through it for decades of professional life and know what’s best for students,” says S Sadagopan, Director, IIIT-Bangalore.
There is no single formula as each individual student and each institution need a different solution, he adds.
Meanwhile, IIIT-Hyderabad tells otherwise and says ‘no’ to such implementation.
“IIIT monitors the performance of all its students, especially in the first year. Those who do well in the first year cope easily in later years. We have special mechanisms to provide additional academic assistance right after their first set of examinations,” says PJ Narayan, Director, IIIT-Hyderabad.
He further explains that they have a flexible approach to learning, where students can take fewer credits in a semester and finally plan their way to complete the course requirements.
As a result, we see practically no student unable to complete the academic requirements, he adds.
BTech to BSc After 2nd SEM
The exit option allows students to move from BTech to BSc after the second semester.
Though exit option would help some struggling students, Narayan says the government should be clear in taking forward the exit option.
‘The government must clearly spell out the requirements of an alternate degree- it’s not a fallback option, and must stand on its own. Will a well-performing student be allowed to claim an alternative degree on request? A four-year degree student could exit with an alternative degree in three years if that’s possible,” he adds.
In this regard, Narayan urges institutions supporting this idea to think about these scenarios and have satisfactory solutions.
IIIT-Pune Registrar SN Sapali goes by Narayan’s way in saying, “Our students are mentored and monitored closely to help them excel in the programme. There is no exit option for our students.”
According to the Ministry, good job offers could be one of the prime reasons behind growing drop-outs in the mid of courses.
