At crunch time, IITs should share faculty resources: Sibal

With the number of students across the IITs growing at a much faster rate than faculty, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday had a stopgap solution to the problem — connectivity among the IITs to enable sharing of faculty resources.

With the number of students across the IITs growing at a much faster rate than faculty, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday had a stopgap solution to the problem — connectivity among the IITs to enable sharing of faculty resources.

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Talking to IIT directors at a workshop at IIT-Delhi on Wednesday, Sibal said: “While I am happy that each of the institutes is taking a different path towards the future, I suggest that there should also be commonality and interconnectivity among the institutes. This could solve the problem of faculty crunch, at least for now.”

“From the government’s point of view, mobility of faculty members within the IIT system will reduce costs and benefit students as they will have access to the best across the IIT system,” he added.

Currently there are about 40,000 students studying across all IITs. This number will grow to 100,000 by 2020.

Going by the teacher-student ratio followed by these premier technical institutes, the ideal faculty strength to handle such a large population should be over 10,000.

Education should be a joyful experience: NDA

The NDA’s education ministers rejected Kapil Sibal’s road map for reforms, saying optional examinations and a single board for 12th class examination were not a good idea.

“We also want education to be a joyful experience and not stressful that stilts a child’s development, but Sibal’s idea of bringing changes without consulting educationists and state governments is not right,” former HRD Minister M.M. Joshi, who chaired their meeting, told reporters.