What ails the B.Tech programme

The other day, I had a four hour long discussion with my guide which touched upon the usual project stuff(lasted no longer than 20 minutes) and also on some serious issues that are of immediate concern atleast in a timeline stretching into the next 5-10 years.

Let's look at the life of a person who gets into IIT. He has a basic interest in maths and sciences during the school days and hears of the word IIT somewhere in his 7th or 8th class. Now, over the next two years, he may or may not be motivated by his parents and cousins to aspire for iit or could also be self-motivated, so that after completion of his 10th, he is clear of his goal in life and gets enrolled in a coaching center or may subscribe to correspondence courses towards the attainment of this goal or may prepare on his own. The next two years may entail some real hard effort on the part of this aspirer, but along the way he acquires a real love for maths, physics and/or chemistry as the case maybe, so that the hard effort is not all that bitter and in most cases may actually be enjoyable and exciting.

So far so good. Now he appears for the jee entrance and with a little bit of luck in his favour (the luck here being proportional to the effort put in over the past two years), he clears the entrance and gets into one of the IITs, into one of the branches, chosen by him as what seems to be the best of the available branches during the time of counselling.

Having gotten into the portals, he is in awe of the IIT campus and remains so in a dazed state for a few weeks...till the time he realises that the course schedule for the sem is a little too taxing and that the dreaded workshop seems too tiresome or that there is something known as the 'quizzes'. First year passes by quickly, those lucky enough end up with a good gpa, those not, don't know what hit them and have to settle for less.

Second year sees the guy carrying forward the enthusiasm shown in the first year and those raring to climb up the cgpa ladder do so by becoming 'muggus'. Others find that it doesn't entail much effort to get through the sem and there....at this juncture...it is realised that the system..the B.Tech system can be beaten easily...all you gotta do is mug some days before the quiz and you get the grade accordingly...

Beating the system is all about putting just enough effort for a course so as to secure a certain grade. So apart from attending classes, our guy doesn't seem to be doing anything thought-provoking or interesting in the technical realms.

By the start of the third year, having been around for two years, our guy starts bunking the classes big time, but ofcourse there are people who would still be in the race for grades and hence would fall under the 'muggu' category. What happens in the fourth year is better left unsaid...

Having put in considerable effort in the pre-jee days, it is sad to note that only a fraction of that effort and enthusiasm is carried forward in the post-jee days. Agreed, college days are supposed to be fun, but then fun can be had doing stuff..interesting projects, new ideas, research work, a first-hand attempt at
advancing the realms of technical know-how.... research.

If during jee prep., the existing knowledge in physics and maths seemed interesting to know about, how exciting would it be to add to that knowledge base, contribute in your own tiny way so as to expand that base..wouldn't that be a good aim or an outcome of a B.Tech system....Well outstanding research is not expected, but then the faculty of thinking which somehow seems to have become dormant after entry into college, needs to be propped up through courses which are designed in a way that fulfill this purpose.

The system, to which the students get attuned to by the end of second year, brings about resentment for courses which require some amount of work(read: thinking and effort ), as against courses where everything is laid down nice and fine...like pre-mixed food: Put the contents in a bowl of water, heat it a little and it's ready for consumption.

There is too much perceived stress on the attainment of good grades. Grades are important, but it may hinder the enthusiasm shown by a student towards interesting projects for the lack of time due to his committment towards mugging for the other courses or the already ingrained attitude of beating the system(maximum result from minimum effort).

If grades were subject to de-emphasis and more importatnly, the courses were designed to make the students think in an out-of-box fashion,it would go a long way into ensuring that the purpose of a B.Tech program gets served by making more students inclined towards research(having had some exposure to it) at the end of a B.Tech program. If the redesigning of the courses leads to less content being covered, then the B.Tech program which is currently a four year one could be extended by another year. We already have a 5 year integrated program, which seems much better than the 4 year B.Tech program as it gives the student a full one year to do some serious research and contribute positively to the advancement of research in the institute. Increasing the number of students in the integrated(dual degree) program
would also help the cause.