Poor quality of students entering IITs: Narayana Murthy

[Green Hornet]

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NEW YORK: 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.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/10217469.cms

[Naren1987]

Murthy is right again, as usual, coaching institutes coach students to write exams, their performance sucks, as their employers surely find out.
Human intelligence has several disciplines,
There's a hell of a difference between designing a bridge and writing an exam.

[subhajit20]

how can u say that......those getting into IITs r the best available there in the country.......if the best students of the country r not getting into the IITs then something is wrong with the IITJEE entrance procedure..........the role of the entrance is to select the best students available in the country..........I dont know if the standard of IIT students r going down, but rest assured that they r the best ones presently there in the country........

[Manmohan Yadav]

So they plan on Blaming the Students for the
Drawbacks and Failures of the Teaching Facilities and Procedures

[subhajit20]

It may be true that the overall standard of the students are going down.........but thats definitely due to the lack of proper teaching staff n infrastructure.........

[Naren1987]

how can u say that......those getting into IITs r the best available there in the country.......if the best students of the country r not getting into the IITs then something is wrong with the IITJEE entrance procedure..........the role of the entrance is to select the best students available in the country..........I dont know if the standard of IIT students r going down, but rest assured that they r the best ones presently there in the country........

Original Post By subhajit20

1.50% of seats are reserved,
2.To the coaching class alumni, the tests are not problem solving, it's just repeating what you've been taught for 2 years,
I think the SATs are a better system.

[Naren1987]

So they plan on Blaming the Students for the
Drawbacks and Failures of the Teaching Facilities and Procedures

Original Post By Manmohan Yadav

No, the entrance test is to blame.

[Shikari]

OK guys... I am not an IIT student... Moreover, I have neither done my schooling nor am I doing my University degree in India so I understand that I might get some flack for acting like an authority in this matter. However, both my parents are IIT and IIM graduates and I have met many alumni in my life. I have also kept in touch with the Indian teaching system and this is my take on the matter (might be completely wrong but we are only here to voice our opinions).

Let us suppose there are two students in different parts of India. Student A is born in a slum. He has exceptional IQ. However, he is not given the amount of care and time as many others take for granted. His parents are illiterate. They don't know how to help him in his studies. They don't even know how the education system works. This student struggled to pay the fees for his meager education - never knowing if he would continue next year. This student has never seen an IIT paper before coming in to do the exam.

Student B has an IQ slightly higher than average. He is born in an upper middle class family with good educational background. His parents put him in speacalized coaching from when he is FIVE to make sure he "stands out". This boy has no friends and no social life. This boy has been solving problems and doing IIT papers since he is ten. This boy goes through tremendous psychological pressure every time he doesn't do exceedingly well in an exam (his mom cries like it's the end of the world, dad ignores him, siblings humiliate him etc.). When he walks into the exam room he can do 50 types of problems without even thinking about it and is CONFIDENT that no other type of problem can possibly come up.

Who do you guys think has the better chance of entering IIT? The laughable problem with IIT is the time pressure. I mean, if you won't even give the bright student time to think, how can he EVER out-wit the more prepared student? Now I don't know if student B really is the "best our society has to offer" but I'd feel better if a few Student As made it through to IITs aswell. As it happens we get a lot of race horses in IITs who have only one merit - hard work. Hard work has a lot of advantages but it can not be a replacement for genius.

As it happens, we now have coaching centres for entering IITs. And we have coaching centres for entering these coaching centres (because these coaching centres have entrance exams aswell). And there are coaching centres for THESE coaching centres aswell (I am NOT kidding).

Of course we have problems with our education system... but the quality of students IS deteriorating and we need to face the facts.. Maybe we need to test for other things and not what we are currently checking for? I don't have the answers but am open to ideas.

[Green Hornet]

Those who run body shops should not comment on IITs: Chetan Bahagat to Narayana Murthy

NEW DELHI: A day after Infosys chairman emeritus N R Narayana Murthy commented on the falling standards of IIT engineers, his comments have met with strong opposition from Chetan Bhagat.

Reacting strongly to Murthy's remarks, Chetan Bhagat has tweeted, "It is ironic when someone who runs a body shopping company and calls it hi-tech, makes sweeping comments on the quality of IIT students."

Bhagat furhter writes, "Mr Murthy had a point, but wish he wasn't so sweepingly high handed. Fix the system. No point judging students."

Referring to the contribution of IIT students in the making of Infosys, he tweets, "IITians have made a great contribution in making Infosys what it is. Hope people remember that."

Addressing a gathering of hundreds of former IITians in New York, Murthy had said poor quality of students were entering IITs. He had said that the quality of students has deteriorated over the years due to the coaching classes that prepare engineering aspirants.

Those who run body shops should not comment on IITs: Chetan Bahagat to Narayana Murthy - The Times of India

[Rudrakx]

I think Chetan Bhagat over reacted, Murthy commented about current situation and not about overall quality of student including past. But Chetan is right, Software companies are no high-tech., they are body shops, I know how they hire computer Engineers for bench strength and if required then for programming, here in Pune.

[ggicollegepunjab]

Some points i agree with Rudrakx. But i think IIT's should never change their pattern...
____________________

Automobile engineering college

[Skull and Bones]

I never likes Chetan Bhagat as a person or as a novelist, he can never take criticism positively.

[ashoka]

First offer 54% reservations, then reduce the education standards, avoid enterance tests and then cry for educational standards

[GUNS-N- ROSES]

u let the best student in the country join IITs. stop reservation and u will see the difference.

[tangocharlie]

Indeed, Reservation is also responsible for this. But what I felt there are some other factors involved herein.

- Reservation
- Low standard of educations in Government run School
- No culture of workshop
- lack of quality books with poor Students
- Inability of BSA officers to look at the standard of school environment.

Past two year back. HCL founder Shiv Nadar started an education initiative in Noida. They opened a college for poor and backward children for providing standard education to them. Now the things started changing out here, many students get good education in terms of Science, Computer, Mathematics etc...

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Even Many times, we went to teach the village students to get them prepare for Mathematics and Science for Secondary and Sr. Secondary School Certification examination. believe me they badly require school education reforms which uplift our education standard.

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