On Monday, Lok Sabha was informed that during 2014-15
session, almost 63 students failed to sustain the minimum requirement i.e.
prescribed grades in six Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). A strange but
true fact.
This information was provided by Union HRD minister Smriti Irani to Lok Sabha. She wrote in a reply when she was asked whether students were expelled from different IIT's and was it due to bad performance.
Irani confirmed that during year 2014-15 almost 63 students failed to secure the minimum grade in 6 different IIT's (under undergraduate courses). This is because IITs follow a strict system asking its students to achieve minimum grades in order to continue in the IIT system.
The category wise distinction of students failing in IIT include- 8 belong to General category, 9 belong to OBC, 16 belong to Scheduled Tribe and 16 and 30 from Scheduled Caste.
She further stated that IIT has organized a system called Peer group Assisted Learning (PAL) to help those students who are not so bright, in other words who are backward. The IIT council implemented this after discussing the situation.
Other such instances include appellation of 73 students by IIT Roorkee in July. These were suspended as their performance was not up to standards after first year of B tech.
Challenging institute's decision, a group of 64 moved to Uttarkhand high court for justice but court went with the institute.
Due to this controversy, institute had to re-admit students in August and said this was just a one-time measure. They said that these students will be treated as they are on an academic probation and will be under strict guidelines.
They had to again repeat their year and were insisted to pass all the courses of both semester (autumn and spring) while maintaining an attendance of 75 % per subject.