Minister wants medicine, law in IIT curriculum
Setting at rest the speculations that the government may exempt the Indian Institutes of Technology from the quota for SCs, STs and OBCs, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said on Wednesday reservation for the faculty of the elite technology institutions will continue.
The minister termed the attempts to free the technology institutions from quota system in the teaching staff infructuous. This announcement from the HRD minister is a broad hint that the Government is not keen to push for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation in Posts and Services) Bill, 2008, which seeks to exempt elite institutions from faculty quota.
The IITs have been resisting continuation of quota system in their faculties.
Sibal announced the government’s quota policy for the IITs while addressing IIT directors. During the meeting he asked the elite technology institutes to consider including courses in other streams like medicine, social sciences, law, and literature in their curriculum.
The HRD minister said, "You need to prepare a framework on how to achieve expansion, inclusiveness and excellence. IITs are good because you get the best students, not necessarily you give them the best. What you need is to give them the best."
True to their nomenclature IITs at present are offering courses exlusively in technology, but they are looking forward to diversifying themselves into other disciplines.