New Delhi, September 8, 2014: With the enrolment of students from the Northeast in IITs and NITs remaining abysmal, a committee has suggested increasing exposure for students from these states to the Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs).
The committee, under IIT Guwahati director Gautam Biswas, has advised the human resource development ministry to ask IITs, NITs and IISERs to have summer internship for engineering students and short-term visit programmes for school students from the eight northeastern states, including Sikkim.
Currently, the enrolment of Northeast students in BTech programmes in IITs remains abysmally low — around three to four per cent. The HRD ministry had set up the committee in June this year to suggest measures to improve the educationstandard of students from the Northeast and give them some exposure in national institutes.
The committee said students of Classes IX and XI could participate in short-term visit programme to 16 IITs and five IISERs. Two groups in summer and one group in winter, comprising 32 students each, will cover 2,016 students in an academic year. A group of 32 can be formed by taking four students from one school in each of the eight states.
The schoolchildren will get an orientation lecture on Introduction to Science and Engineering. The introductory session will be followed by a lab session where the visiting students will be shown the laboratory and equipment of the discipline concerned.
The children will get tips on career choice. They will be informed about available scholarships, government schemes, admission process of different institutes in India and abroad. They will be given training on improving communication skills.
There should be video shows on remarkable achievements, including at least one by an Indian in science. Resource persons will emphasise the need for consciously developing the traits and habits that enhances personality.
Students will be engaged in outdoor activities, including sport, and go on walks around the campus in the initial two days so that they can overcome their inhibitions.
There should be a seven-week summer internship at the 16 IITs and NITs at Surathkal, Rourkela, Allahabad, Calcutta, Tiruchirappalli and Warangal for engineering under-graduate students from 25 government-funded institutions in the Northeast.
Each visiting student will be assigned a volunteering faculty member from the IITs and NITs. The visiting students will work on a research project under the mentorship of faculty members in various departments during their stay.
Biswas said he had submitted his report to the HRD ministry, which is examining it.
Sources here said the report might be discussed at the IIT council meeting on September 22.
Former IIT Guwahati director Gautam Barua said teachers from state government engineering institutions in the Northeast should also get exposure in IITs and NITs.
IIT Guwahati is running such a programme under which faculty from other institutes are able to pursue PhD under the supervision of faculty of IIT Guwahati. Other IITs can start similar programmes, he said.
Barua hoped the exposure would encourage school students to pursue education in national institutions. However, implementation of the short-term visit programmes by IITs and IISERs would hold the key to the programme’s success. “These students should be given proper attention,” he added.
Source: The Telegraph
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