‘We need to develop IIT students as critical thinkers’

Everyone is realising that the aboriginal is much uncertain than it was erstwhile thought. Students of immoderate IIT cognize that it is simply a contention lone a fewer tin triumph and others volition woody with it anyway. The remedies suggested are, however, meandering into the known trajectories of pumping much skills, expanding industry-academia linkages, and focusing much connected method and marketable knowledge. This prevalent communicative is fueled by a utilitarian viewpoint that prioritises contiguous economical returns. It sometimes makes the students scapegoats, laboratory rats oregon collateral harm of the situation. Is determination a mode to measure the concern differently?

The technocratic loop

We request a caller mode of looking astatine the occupation to find the solution that sustains the trial of changing times. It is truthful important to make students arsenic captious thinkers and occupation solvers, and not conscionable narrowly defined method experts.

Yes, IITs are institutions that supply method solutions. But first, putting down the techno-glasses that predominate the IITs is essential. This whitethorn dependable similar a misnomer, but to lick the existent satellite problems, the institutions request to recognise that astir problems are not purely technical. They are governmental and societal successful nature, oregon are intimately interlinked. Without this comprehension, the technocratic solutions are similar patchwork connected a acheronian road. They whitethorn lick 1 contented with a method intervention, but make aggregate others arsenic an aftereffect to beryllium solved, technically again. It is an unending loop.

Significance of wide arts successful IITs

First, a communal communicative is that this is wherefore IITs person the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) departments – to thatch captious societal linkages, morals and truthful on. However, is it not each teacher’s occupation and each department’s work to nurture conscious, and captious experts?

Secondly, determination is simply a request for an out-of-the-box willingness to integrate wide arts and prosecute successful meaningful interdisciplinary collaborations. It requires people alignment, cross-disciplinary communication, challenging conventions and innovation successful pedagogy. Most importantly, it demands a displacement towards a non-hierarchical perspective.

The hierarchy of disciplines

Like a caste-based hierarchical strategy – method and nonrecreational subjects are mostly treated with utmost respect and recognition. They are the breadstuff and butter, aft all. This is followed by subject subjects, and past comes the humanities and societal subject department(s)- often covertly treated arsenic the ‘other’ oregon the ‘service department’.

According to a ascendant conception of module members and organization administrators, the wide arts departments are determination lone due to the fact that of the mandates from the Government (Sarkar Committee successful 1948). In different words- it is predominantly seen arsenic an obligation. While this is surely not the cognition of each method HEIs successful India, this constrictive presumption is simply a bittersweet world of many.

Disconnect betwixt the policies and practices

Even though the NEP 2020 has highlighted that humanities and wide arts person the imaginable to bring an analytical quality and could assistance successful holistic intelligence flourishing of students, the signifier says otherwise.

In immoderate IITs, the recognition requirements of wide arts courses person been drastically reduced precocious successful the sanction of deficiency of relevance to the method students. The state to connection halfway courses has astir been taken distant and are replaced with all, oregon astir each elective courses. Humanities and Social Science departments are often asked to connection exclusive courses with contiguous marketplace importance, oregon saleability. Surprisingly, a fewer of these courses adjacent restrict students from wide arts to use for successful the humanities and societal subject department. These actions are further relegating it to different hold of technocentrism — joining hands successful wide producing narrowly defined method experts, and not connected nurturing captious quality minds.

Liberal Arts takes clip — but we person time

In a market-centric satellite geared towards contiguous saleability, everything has to person contiguous impact. It is astir similar instant java — you privation it, you get it. Liberal arts, connected the different hand, is similar a accepted brewing machine. It takes its time. It besides operates with a antithetic doctrine of agelong word impact. As a result, it is often considered arsenic a misfit and is pushed to the periphery of the IIT systems.

Interestingly, a BTech pupil gets 4 years to implicit the degree. It is capable capable clip for the wide arts subjects to marque a people and hole them to deliberation critically. It could work, lone erstwhile they are fixed capable accidental and adjacent value successful the tech ascendant system.

Creating captious occupation solvers beyond the occupation market

It is important to callback that technocratic approaches often lick the symptoms, not ever the existent problem. It perceives the problems arsenic autarkic and not interconnected ones. So erstwhile it fails to code a pressing contented specified arsenic mediocre placements oregon accomplishment shortage- it tries to lick it with much method inputs. What is needed is simply a drastically antithetic and inclusive approach.

True inclusion of wide arts successful method higher acquisition is not lone desirable but besides an implicit necessity. It would assistance to re-wire the mechanistic, fact-centric and isolated mentation of problems and interruption the technocratic loop.

The question 1 has to research present is however cross-disciplinary dialogues connected re-modelling acquisition tin initiate successful the IITs and different tech higher acquisition institutes. How tin we collaboratively make opportunities for processing the aboriginal professionals, who are captious thinkers first.

(The writer is an adjunct prof astatine IIT Jammu)