A fatal combination …

… arrogance leading ignorance!

This is the first thought that came to my mind when I read an article entitled “88% of IIT-B students say profs inept” by Yogita Rao in the Times of India of April 8, 2013 [1].

I am a graduate of IIT and therefore it is not any kind of jealousy that has driven me to say this article, based on a piece in the IIT Bombay campus newspaper, inappropriately called Insight, does not have a value beyond the paper it is printed on. Yet, I am writing this in response, because the claims cannot be allowed to go without being refuted.

The first claim – the students do not study because “their (my emphasis all through) professors do not generate interest in their courses”. Now, I understand it as, per the English grammar my teachers taught me, the first pronoun refers to the students and the second refers to the professors; the courses are owned by (the current management lingo) the teachers!

If I am going to study someone else’s courses, why in the world will I put in the effort? One has to ask these 88% students whether the teachers at the IITJEE coaching classes they must have attended taught their courses in a way to generate interest in these students. I would guess not. The interest the students must have shown – otherwise they would not have been successful enough to get through – would have been internally generated, with a long-term perspective. Once you enter the portals, what matters is not how you do at the institute but what you do to get out in style. The sequence is to get into IIT, graduate and fly away to the US. Well, during the four years at an IIT, your sole focus is on getting the additional qualifications, like high percentiles in GRE, GMAT, CAT etc.

Second, the article says, “Fed up with criticism about their ‘poor performance’ compared to previous batches, a group of IITians from the current batch [what really does this mean, if anything] had conducted a survey on the campus.” This is confusing. The criticism is about the current batch. Then, why did this “group of IITians” go in for a campus-wide survey? Were they looking to pad up the numbers, increasing the unsample size?

For an article that blares an eye-catching number, 88%, in its headline, it is astounding that it also says, “While a few teachers are enthusiastic about teaching, others are not.” This sure does look like a conclusion from the survey; then, where are the numbers? Why “a few” and “others”? Why not 98% and 2% instead? Maybe because such numbers do not exist! The fact that in an engineering school where numbers rule supreme, a wishy-washy “a few” and “others”, particularly in a campus newspaper, do not have any purchase.

Back to numbers. “At least 72% students believe the course content is theoretical, lacks in application and therefore, is not interesting.” Now remember, IITs have the implied mandate of fattening up the national innovation portfolio. If theory is not going to help, what will? It is not a question of courses being “interesting“. It is all about they being useful, in every sense of the word. It is for the students to get interested in the subjects. No point blaming the teachers.

" [T]eachers have cited large classes as one of the reasons for ‘inefficient teaching’ …’With a shortage of faculty, the surge in number of students has not given enough time to the teachers and for the infrastructure to evolve,’ says the report.” My Physics and Chemistry classes had 140 students, but that did not compromise my learning these subjects, physics better than chemistry though. I would like to read between the lines and see whether it has some ulterior motives, along the lines of “merit” being diluted.

It is not clear whether the following was said by a professor: “It is not hard to see why it is possible that research could be more interesting and teaching could be relegated to being one of the unpleasant aspects of the job for many professors.” If it was, that professor has to listen to what Richard Feynman said. Teaching added to his research. Obviously, then, IITs do not harbor any Feynmans. So sad.

Having been an insider at an IIT, I can vouch for the statement, “75% of the students feel they can get a decent grade even by studying a night before the exam, which reflects badly on the standards of learning process.” But, what has gone unsaid is the learning is continuous. Not a day went by without a submission deadline – a lab report, an assignment, a drawing, a test. Truly, we did not have time for more than an overnight session for any test! You always had your fingers on the pulse of the subject. That is the time-tested learning process!

There is one statement that I do feel good about, even without any numbers. “Many IITians have sought a return to blackboard teaching as they believe that showing slides does not ensure value-addition from the teachers.” As I understand, the demand for near-virtual teaching came initially from the students, they being precociously tech-savvy and all that. Of course, it helped reduce the teaching burden. Is the pendulum starting to swing the other way? Even if it has, I would want the swing to be moderated.

The article in the campus newspaper is grounded in ignorance leavened by arrogance: “We are IITans and we proclaim the truth!” It does not matter that the truth is self-serving. This is what arrogance leads ignorance into. And, given the penchant for Times of India to catch eyeballs, I am not too surprised it willfully played into the hands of the above fatal combination.

Raghuram Ekambaram

References

1.    http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-08/news/38371990_1_iit-b-many-iitians-class-size