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Tuesday 2 February 2010

Five Whys of IIT

Making presentation for the UG curriculum review workshop; I asked 5 Whys to find the root cause of a problem.

Aim of IITs: The IITs were created to train scientists and engineers, with the aim of developing a skilled workforce to support the economic and social development of India after independence in 1947.

PS: Has the Aim of IITs changed after 60 years of independence

Students don't go for higher education/technical jobs

Why?

They don't have a great experience; or find a field which they are interested in during their B.tech/dual degree

Why?

They don't get to do great projects here

Why?

They are not interested in doing great projects because they require hard work and technical knowledge

Why?

They are not motivated to learn the 'technical' stuff

Why?

During their initial 1-2 years, the courses and labs do not motivate them to do something of their own; after which due to increasing pressure of interns/jobs etc; they shift their focus to other activities.

PS: They continue to score good grades, but they are not 'interested' in the courses/their dep: but scoring good grades is prereq for good interns/job/other things....

What's your opinion?


3 comments:

  1. One of them inconvenient truths. Such it goes. :|

    I am one of those bovines who have followed the herd and am now well on my way to being an unbecoming engineer, and trust me, it's not a very nice place to be in. Nobody wins when everybody is losing. But then again, such it goes. Same old. Same old.

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  2. Agreed that the courses/labs in the starting few semesters fail to motivate us towards 'technical' stuff but then are we not expected to be 'technically' motivated given that we chose to join a technological institute! Perhaps we also need to look at the changes that have come in society's mindset, expectations, stereotypes etc. than jus the changes in the aim of IITs.

    Same boring courses were there previously also when students used to opt for higher studies or technical jobs.

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  3. Yes, Indeed. The JEE and The gap b/w students and faculty play a very important role; infact - in my opinion are the real root causes.

    However there are 2 things to it. One that changing society's mindset is probably more than what I can think of - making more IITs in that regards is probably a good step forward.

    Still I believe that JEE is not the solution, a better school education is...

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