New Delhi, August 12 : When the IIT Joint Admission Board (JAB) holds its emergency meeting on Wednesday in Delhi, topmost on the agenda will be the recent suggestion by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) asking that all new IITs also introduce preparatory courses for SC/ST students who failed to qualify. Now, armed with statistical data to show how this is going to “stretch things too far” not only in terms of inadequate infrastructure and faculty but also potential dilution of the premier institute’s standards, the IIT directors will be putting forward their case at the board meeting which also has MHRD officials as members.
The existing IITs— all mentoring six new IITs started this year either from their own campus or from temporary campus elsewhere — are already facing a daunting task arranging infrastructure and faculty for the new institutes. The ministry’s latest advisory, in such a situation, has not gone down well with the IIT community.
The issue of holding prep courses for the six new IITs started this year has been tossed back and forth between the MHRD and the IITs and last heard the IITs were not holding prep courses for the new institutes. However, at a meeting with all IIT directors held last week by the ministry, the latter asked that the course should be conducted for new IITs also to help fill vacancies.
“The ministry’s stand has been very unclear. They tell us in May to start/mentor a new IIT and then when it is done against all odds despite infrastructure and faculty constraints, they insist on preparatory courses as well. This really stretches things too far. That apart, the question of bringing down the cut- off further is not a very good idea and is widely opposed”, says a source.
