Indian Express, New Delhi
With labs getting outdated and infrastructure wearing thin, India's famed IIT system is under massive strain that can lead to its slump unless they chart a new course, warns a book. IITs would soon be not just heading down the hill but heading down a deep abyss never to rise again, says Prof Shashi K Gulhati of IIT, Delhi in his book "The IITs, Slumping or Soaring?" Doctors have the clout to attract attention. When they stop work, the hurt is immediate and visible. IITs and IIMs can cry themselves hoarse and no one will blink an eyelash. Noncooperation from engineers is not immediately life threatening Gulhati says as he painstakingly explains the crisis the IITs are heading. Quoting reports, he says that the total strength of faculty in all the IITs in 2002-2003 was 27% less than their sanctioned strength (3263). A study by McKincy forecast a nationwide shortage of faculty for the better engineering colleges to be about 50% that is nearly 5000.

Remuneration for the faculty is are low from industries working in core engineering fields. Even coaching centres which are only preparing students to be able to join the IITs pay more to their teachers than IITs, the book says.
According to estimates, an IIT professor has an annual package of Rs 8 lakh whereas in the industry the figure is about 2-3 times as much. And the faculty in the United States has one that is 7.5 times as much at about Rs 60 lakh pa. IITs had great infrastructure when they were established. Although over the years inputs were made to modernise and renovate, obsolescence set in more rapidly in technological institutes, he says.
On the state of the labs, the author says that it was not easy to make an assessment but wonders whether the infusion of Rs 100 crore in the next five years into each IIT recommended by the Review Committee in 2004 was enough to make the IIT labs world class.

On recent controversy over increasing the seats to accommodate the OBCs and comparison of IITs with MIT of the US, the author points out that MIT does not admit 5000 students every year- it only admits 1000 undergraduates. MIT's total enrolment during 2005-06 was 4066 under-graduates and 6140 PG and doctoral students. MITs total teaching staff consisted of 1620 and its annual budget was $2000 million or Rs 9000 crore. The book warns that increasing the student intake at the IITs without addressing the acute shortage of faculty and inadequate infrastructure - hostel rooms, student facilities, research labs etc - would only serve to diminish the world class standards achieved to date. "Affirmative action should be applied for mass education at primary level and not for institutions of excellence," Gulhati says. He rues that the problem is not limited just to the faculty and infrastructure. It begins right at the JEE stage.

In recent years nearly all those admitted to the IITs were 'coached' students. The coaching schools do not educate, they break up the material into little modules that consist of various problem types. Understanding of the concepts, obviously, has nothing to do with it. It has been observed that coached students seemed less motivated to learn. Quoting studies, Gulhati says admission by nation-wide tests where thousands appeared had made the selection process mechanical. Writing such tests is trainable, and training offers significant advantage. Thus India's professional colleges have shut their doors to a vast pool of talent among the poorer sections of the society who cannot afford the training and are missing out on true scholars. They are missing out on the richer sections too. Indians are spending between Rs 3-5000 crore on higher education abroad, a staggering amount for a country whose own educational institutions are starved of resources.