Poor quality of students entering IITs: Narayana Murthy

[noksss]

Voicing his displeasure over the quality of engineers that pass out of the IITs, Infosys chairman emeritus N R Narayana Murthy has said there is a need to overhaul the selection criteria for students seeking admission to the prestigious technology institutions.

Addressing a gathering of hundreds of former IITians at a 'Pan IIT' summit here, Murthy said the quality of students entering Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has deteriorated over the years due to the coaching classes that prepare engineering aspirants.

He said the majority of the students fare poorly at jobs and global institutions of higher education.

"Thanks to the coaching classes today, the quality of students entering IITs has gone lower and lower," Murthy said, receiving a thundering applause from his audience.

He said apart from the top 20% of students who crack the tough IIT entrance examination and can "stand among the best anywhere in the world," quality of the remaining 80 per cent of students leave much to be desired.

Coaching classes teach aspirants limited sets of problems, out of which a few are asked in the examinations.

"They somehow get through the joint entrance examination. But their performance in IITs, at jobs or when they come for higher education in institutes in the US is not as good as it used to be.

"This has to be corrected. A new method of selection of students to IITs has to be arrived at."

Drawing a road map to put IITs among the top engineering institutes in the world, Murthy said it has to be ensured that IITs "transcend from being just teaching institutions to reasonably good research institutes" at par with Harvard and MIT in the next 10-20 years.

"Few IITs have done well in producing PhDs but in reality when we compare ourselves to institutions in this country, we have a long way to go," he said.

More emphasis has to be given to research at the undergraduate level and examinations should test independent thinking of students rather than their ability to solve problems.

Murthy said in order to produce good research at IITs, the Indian government has to be persuaded to create institutions that fund research projects.

In addition, faculty members should also be evaluated annually on their research performance by an independent committee, Murthy said adding that India must shift from the tenure system for its faculty to a five year contractual appointment system.

The Infosys mentor also lamented the poor English speaking and social skills of a majority of IIT students, saying with Indian politicians "rooting against English", the task of getting good English speaking students at IITs gets more difficult.

"An IITian has to be a global citizen and must understand where the globe is going," he added.

Murthy also stressed the need to have the governing council of IITs made up of its alumni.

The only way IITs can become better is if 80-90 per cent of members on their governing council are alumni.

"Nobody is bothered about an institution more than its alumni. We must somehow persuade the government of India to let go of its control and make sure majority of the council members is the IIT alumni."

Murthy urged IITians spread across the globe to work with their alma mater to ensure that IITs are among the top 10 engineering schools of the world.

He said while only a couple of IITs feature in the top 50, there should be at least five IITs in the top 10 engineering schools in the world in the next 10-20 years, he added

link:Poor quality of students entering IITs: Narayana Murthy - The Times of India

Guys what did u think is he right

 

[Roybot]

I think you posted it in the wrong section.

 

[cyphercide]

Guys what did u think is he right

Tough to say;Mr. Murthy fails to cite any criteria upon which he came across to such a conclusion(other than English speaking skills)

 

[Subramanian]

It is true but he doesn't have the aukat to make the judgement.

 

[thinkingcap81]

Hi,

Mr. Murthy is very correct --- in almost all the points he raises. Why should he not have the capacity to make such a judgement?

There is no doubt that the top 10% or maybe the 1st 100 toppers are 'gold class' --- they can compete with the best in the world. But beyond maybe 1000 ranks one witnesses a sharp decline except for those who come with minimal coaching help.

Developing your brain for doing competent work like research is not easy --- it has to be bred at a very early stage otherwise it gets very difficult.

But one must also mention that not all professors of IITs are 'world class'. Furthermore the system also breeds incompetence. Very capable people are sometimes wasted.

If the student is made weak by being taught to tackle only a certain set of problems he/she can still be transformed into a competent person but it will take time. After all the students who made it into IITs must possess something special for example excellent memory, lot of will power etc because of which they got into the system in the 1st place.

The task of finding a credible alternative is undoubtedly difficult because of the immense competition.

 

[harpoon]

Mr. Murthy is welcome to start a college of his own where students are admitted according to his caliber and aptitude rather than how fast he can answer objective type questions.

 

[Raju4u]

we should pay for degrees and get better education

 

[harpoon]

we should pay for degrees and get better education

Except for SC/ST students almost all of us have to pay for our education whether you are studying at Govt or Private educational institutions.

 

[kingkobra]

i have always disliked idea of theoretical education for 4 years..it will be better to have industry exposure from the beginning of learning period.

 

[Splurgenxs]

If the students coming IN arent up to the mark, Then what is mr Murthy supposed to be doing with these children? Eating Chana?

The educations system in our country needs a totally different approach......for now its just the hardworking crammer that are the bulk of the enrollments.... and cramming only gets u so far

if they can't come up with there own ..the at least emulate American and British Institutes ...

Its not the Children that make a college great it the College that make the children great... ;

 

[SQ8]

Competition or education..
machines or intelligent beings..
What is the education system employed producing?

 

[IND151]

Mr. Murthy is welcome to start a college of his own where students are admitted according to his caliber and aptitude rather than how fast he can answer objective type questions.

i like your idea.

when a great guy like him will start college definitely it will give high quality education.

but will middle class students be able to afford its fee?

 

[harpoon]

i have always disliked idea of theoretical education for 4 years..it will be better to have industry exposure from the beginning of learning period.

I think that what diploma education is doing. Diploma graduates are more practical oriented than degree graduates.

Also almost all education in India stresses too much on the theoretical side. For example I heard that a student can get a PPL (Professional Pilot Licence) in Phillipines or UAE in 1 1/2 years while the same takes almost 3 years in India eventhough for airlines that employs these pilots its same whether you take PPL from India or UAE.

---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:45 PM ----------

i like your idea.

when a great guy like him will start college definitely it will give high quality education.

but will middle class students be able to afford its fee?

Well infosys is making millions in profit. It will not cost much for the company to put up a trust fund for the proposed college.

 

[t_for_talli]

I dont agree with the minster, its true that IITs are not producing good engineers but its students have contributed in other fields.
A core engineering company pays max 10lac /annum where as Consults, Ibanks, trading firms have avg package of 15 lacs and some of them pay even more than 30lacs and loves to hire so called engineers from IITs, if anybody had worked his *** of during preparation of IIT JEE he would want to go for best

 

[thinkingcap81]

Competition or education..
machines or intelligent beings..
What is the education system employed producing?

We produce both. There are quite a few engineers form IITs and similar institudes of national importance who can serve the country very well. But percentage wise this is low & dissappointing.

Excessive competition for a very small number of A+ grade ones is obviously harmful. If IITs are A+ grade (only for bachelors degrees, less so for masters & a little bit for PhDs) then the institutes immediately below that are not more than B grade.

Amongst the weaker ones whom Mr. Murthy loves to criticize, many can easily become very good thinkers provided they are groomed properly. I think this is what happens in the IVY league institutes in the US.

So by and large our education system produces machines amongst whom a decent percentage could potentially be made intelligent.

And oh, we do produce many students (apart from the truely bright top ranked ones at say IITs) who are good enough to be happily accepted by US colleges which are ranked in the 10-30 range.

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Not a flame, but what is the scenario in Pakistan?