Short on faculty, IITs look towards students

 Under-graduate engineering students from technical institutes may be able to teach and earn as they learn at the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). 

    Faced with a severe faculty shortage, IITs have proposed mentoring the top 15% under-graduate students from IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) and National Institute of Science Education and Research.     The proposal will be discussed at the IIT council meeting on January 7 to be chaired by human resource development minister M M Pallam Raju. IITs hope this joint program will enhance teacher quality and mitigate faculty shortage.     The selected students could be asked to undergo a trainee teacher program at NITs. “While initially they would assist in teaching they would simultaneously go through part-time post-graduate and doctoral programs so they can acquire higher education qualification that is a prerequisite for teaching at IIT and NITs,’’ sources said. 
    Students taking up teaching programmes is not an unusual feature in many western universities but they are more typically pursuing postgraduate programmes.
    IITs hope to produce wellqualified and skilled teachers and researchers while addressing the faculty needs for under-graduate students. The ministry had set up a committee to suggest solutions to the lack of faculty in all central government-funded institutes and studentteachers is one of the proposals being considered.     Students taking up teaching programmes is not an unusual feature in many western universities but they are more typically pursuing postgraduate programmes.    IITs hope to produce wellqualified and skilled teachers and researchers while addressing the faculty needs for under-graduate students. The ministry had set up a committee to suggest solutions to the lack of faculty in all central government-funded institutes and studentteachers is one of the proposals being considered.     According to HRD ministry, IITs suffer from a nearly 33% vacancy while the faculty shortage is about 35% in the NITs. The teacher-student ratio in the seven older IITs is about 1:16 at present, higher than the suggested 1:10. In the eight new IITs, the ratio is about 1:8, in adherence to the international standards. About 1,600 teaching positions are required to offset the faculty shortage in the 15 IITs in the country.