Whenever the ministry of India decides to give clearance for the establishment of new IITs, it gets a lot of resistance from the students of the old and well established IITs. Six new IITs were established in the year 2008 and were followed by the establishment of two more in the year 2009 just before the general elections. These IITs were established hurriedly and the committees approved them in a short period of time. If common sense speaks then you cannot create a good IIT by the stroke of a pen and a newspaper announcement. The question is - Are the new IITs bringing down the exclusivity of IITs?
Though the government speaks in the favour of establishing new IITs; stating that they were set up in response to the increased demand for an IIT education and the demand of good engineers from the India's InfoTech sector. But as of now the current picture speaks a story of a long diastance to cover up for the newer IITs.
If we talk about the basic amenities and facilities available to the students in these new IITs, there is a struggling image to look upon for some new IITs. Very few of the new IITs have moved completely to their own campuses and most are working by sharing their land with other public colleges. IIT Mandi is situated in an extremely odd location of Himachal Pradesh and its general infrastructure that has been developed so far is grossly inadequate. The institute runs its operations partly from temporary premises in Kamand and partly from a rented campus shared with Vallabh Government College.
IIT Indore was planned to be set up in a village Simrol, 25kms away from the main city of Indore. Its construction is facing resistance from the locals of a village who fear that they might lose access to the main road. Same is the case with the IITs in Ropar, Panta and Gandhinagar.
Another problem is the fact that the faculty accessible to the new IITs is not absolutely at par with the older ones.
It is a great plan that new institutes come up in a developing country like India, something which our youth needs urgently. It is indeed a challenge to bring out the best from the new institutes, but not as difficult as it seems. The older IITs themselves started as new at some point. It will take determination from the teachers and the students to instil the same glory in the newer IITs.
At the end, every good thing takes time to start. Like every other well established IIT that was once in its budding stage, the new IITs are also coming up. The best thing is the fact that the students remain loyal to their institutes irrespective of the initial hurdles. The image of IIT has been built by hard work over 4 decades and would need effort from the new IITs to come at par with the older ones. But sooner or later they are going to catch on since the quality of students admitted is crème de la crème. A country like ours certainly needs new education centres!
Resisting and criticising the establishment of new IITs for the fact that they bring down the exclusivity of the IIT brand is unfair. Instead the older IITs and the government should leave no stone unturned to assist these new institutes.
Tags:
Engineering
Studies
Iit
Quality
