PM gives assurance to protect autonomy of IITs
Aesha Datta
New Delhi, June 15:
Representatives of the All India Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Faculty Federation met the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Friday
to discuss the concerns related to the ‘one nation, one test’ entrance
examination for engineering institutes.
“We had a very fruitful discussing. The Prime Minister said that the
brand IIT has to be maintained and added that as a former teacher he
understands the importance of maintaining an institute’s academic
autonomy,” Prof A.K. Mittal, Secretary, All India IIT Faculty
Federation, said.
Representatives of all seven IITs were present at the meeting with the
PM.
“Our PM has appreciated the key concerns we have been expressing. He has
agreed to take up the matter with the Human Resource Ministry. We have
200 per cent faith in our PM and we are sure dialogue will open up again
and fruitful solutions would emerge,” Prof K. Narasimhan, President of
the Federation, and Faculty at IIT-Bombay, said.
He added that the PM has given assurance that the autonomy of the IITs
will not be eroded and it will be protected at all levels.
Prof Narasimhan added that the IITs want the reform process to be kicked
in only from 2014 to enable students to prepare accordingly.
Inclusion of board marks
He added that the IITs are not against the inclusion of board marks but
they are not convinced with the proposed normalisation process and would
like the exams in 2013 to be treated as a dry-run, enabling them to
analyse how the inclusion of Class XII board marks changes the merit
list.
This, Prof Narasimhan added, would help them come out with a better
normalisation scheme.
