Back to the basics
IIT Kharagpur alumni association’s recent meeting in Hyderabad resulted in a novel idea
Private engineering colleges are facing a faculty crunch and the IITs are in no better state. According to reports, only six out of the 16 IITs have met the 10:1 student to faculty ratio.
Meanwhile, the alumni of IIT Kharagpur has come up with a novel idea to attract brilliant students as teachers in the institution. The alumni association has decided to provide an allowance of Rs 15,000 extra beside the salary that teachers draw as per UGC guidelines.
Commander V.K. Jaitly, the president of the IIT Kharagpur Alumni Association of India, says, “Teaching should be the most highly paid jobs in the country. Unfortunately, that is not the case." “Salaries in the corporate sector are much higher than in the teaching profession, hence the best students opt for jobs in the corporate world. Those who cannot make a mark in the corporate sector take up teaching jobs. This lowers the standard of teaching in the institute,” he says, adding, “The nominal amount of money is an attempt by the alumni to bridge the gap between the pay scales.”
“As a foundation, the alumni association of Kharagpur was created 10 years back. Through this past students who have done well for themselves can give back to the college,” adds Jaitly. Examples of the alumni giving back to the institute includes the Vinod Gupta School of Management put up by Vinod Gupta and Prof. G.S. Sanyal School of Telecom, put up by Arjun Malhotra, former head of HCL.
Jaitly adds that each batch is encouraged to create a Batch Endowment Fund of Rs 50 lakh. A classroom will be built in the name of the batch and the needs of the students will be catered to. The teaching tools will also be provided. Does the government or UGC know about measure? Jaitly says, “They have no idea. It is our way to let them know that teachers need to be paid well.”
“One brilliant teacher would get the monetary benefit. This would help attract better teachers to the institution. There will be extensive publicity among the IIT-ians. Ex students can also apply for the post. There are also plans to expand this to four teachers in a year,” said Commander Jaitly.