New Delhi, July 24: Human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal has found a simple solution for the perennial faculty shortage in the nation’s premier educational institutions.
Sibal has suggested that top colleges such as the IITs should ‘share’ their faculty by making use of the Information Communication Technology (ICT).
The former science and technology minister has for long championed the use of the ICT in education. But the IITs doubt the viability of the minister’s idea.
“The IITs talk of faculty shortage. So why can’t they share their faculties? They should do so using the ICT,” Sibal said.
He added that this would also help bring down costs.
The ICT is an umbrella term that refers to the use of sound or images using tools such as microphones, cameras, loudspeakers, telephones and computers in classrooms. This means that a student from IIT Kharagapur may attend the class of a professor in IIT Kanpur without leaving his campus.
The ICT may effectively replace the concept of visiting faculty, Sibal said.
The faculty shortage exists in old as well as newly established IITs. At IIT Guwahati, of the required 270 teacher strength, only 232 seats have been filled.
Prof Gautam Barua, director of IIT Guwahati, said: “ We would ideally like to have a teacher-student ratio of 1:10 but we are a bit short of that.” He added: “ Many IITs are being linked to the National Knowledge Network so that higher educational institutions may share resources. But it’s a new technology and we are not sure of its efficacy.”
IIT Roorkee director Prof S. C. Saxena said, “ Teaching in the IITs is not just about delivering lectures. It’s also about research, doing lab work, etc. So, the ICT can be used as an additional input but we are not seeing it as a solution for faculty shortage.”
IIT Delhi director Prof Surendra Prasad said, “The ICT is relevant to us so far as sharing complementary expertise is concerned. But it is only a tool to augment our resources. It’s not a substitute for teachers in the classrooms.” IIM Bangalore director Dr Pankaj Chandra agreed. “ The best institutes transform the intellectual experience of their students. And this happens through direct contact between a teacher and a student. Education through IT is not a substitute for that,” he said.
–Agencies