Passionate About Tabla
& Arts, IITs Now Say
We Also
Teach Engineering
To learn life skills, students take courses in human values,
pottery & theatre
What's Odissi got to do with engineering?
Or painting, sculpture and music for that matter?
Everything, it would appear.
India's top engineering schools have come to realise that
allowing their students
to acquire some of these skills is
essential for all-round development, especially when it
comes to dealing with stress.
Take Nikhil Jain, for instance -he always wanted to try his
hand at art and music.
Peer pressure and his parents, however
drove him to the Indian Institute of Technology at Varanasi
where he is a dual degree (B Tech and M Tech) student.
But he's also enrolled for a course on human values,
a subject not typically associated with a professional
engineering degree.
Apart from the disciplines mentioned above, pottery ,
theatre and music
appreciation are among the offbeat subjects
that are now found in the
curriculum of the Illustration:
ANIRBAN IITs, the country's top engineering colleges.
The objective is to make IIT graduates smarter,
with well-rounded,
balanced and holistic training.
“Now, having attended these courses, I intend to do something
that would truly give me
satisfaction, like either organic
farming or something in
alternative education,“ said Jain.
“Before joining the
course, our batch was very competitive
and reeling under peer pressure. Also, the goals earlier were
highly materialistic. I
was always bothered about my
placement in a big corporate and the size of the pay package.
“ When Jain and his batch mates step out into the world,
they will be armed with more than just knowledge of
engineering -they will also be equipped with the life skills
needed to tackle
real-world problems.
Along with physics, mathematics and computer science,
among others, most IIT students are now required to get
credits in subjects such as pottery, ceramics, photography,
meditation, architecture,
human values, music appreciation,
film critique, theatre,
music and dance. These subjects are
also intended to take the stress out of the students' lives.
“Learning at the IITs is mechanised and many students have
been affected by this.
Students in the past have dipped in
academics due to
pressures, both academic and personal,
“ said IIT-Guwahati Director Gautam Biswas.
According to Biswas, three out of 10 IIT students suffer
from pressure, leading to depression.
“These students need to de-stress with non-academic
subjects that would also help them to rejuvenate mental
strength,“ he said.
Professionals from all streams -engineering, finance, medicine
suffer from such anxiety
and picking up a skill like writing,
dancing or singing can
help them beat this, according to
Samir Parikh, consultant psychiatrist and director of the
Department of Mental Health & Behavioural Sciences at
Fortis Healthcare in the Capital. “If these skills are made
part of the education system,
especially in the higher
education system like in the IITs, it will work as a
stress-coping tool,“ Parikh said.
Much-needed
Step
Recruiters say it's a much-needed step that will enable
more creative and
balanced thinking of both engineering
and real-world problems.
“As an organisation, we believe in cross-functional,
`whole-brained' teams,“ said Rahul Gama, head of human
resources at Godrej
Consumer Products Ltd.
“When we recruit from engineering and business schools,
our hiring strategy is to
attract young and talented India,
especially people who are
also passionate about their
interests outside work.“
The IITs are attempting to do just this, by focussing on
aspects involving interests outside the workspace.
IIT-Bhubaneswar recently started Odissi dance as a B Tech
subject. IITGuwahati
introduced unconven tional courses
like the Assamese Sattriya dance, instrumental music
(violin and tabla) and Hindustani vocal music. At IIT-Varanasi,
every student is required
to pick one humanities subject
every semester.Arts courses here include painting, sculpture,
music and dance, and are
part of the credit requirements,
as is a subject like
human values.“Courses such as human
values develop
sensitivity and self-reflection.
Such engineers would be better in teamwork with leadership
qualities,“ said Rajeev
Sangal, director of IIT (BHU) Varanasi.
“I am glad that this institute is offering and trying to
integrate
more such courses into
the curriculum. I will get more
exposure in the field that I always wanted to be in,“ said Jain.
Adding New Courses
Last semester, IIT-Hyderabad start ed courses like sculpture,
painting poetry, clay
modelling, theatre and dance.
It is mandatory for every stu dent to pick up at least two of
these courses under
“creative arts“.
“Every semester, we intend to add new courses to creative
arts. The next we will add ceramics, and in future we will also
increase the credits for
these courses,“ said Deepak John
Mathew, head of the department of design at IIT-Hyderabad.
“There are often complaints that engineers lack in life skills.
These courses will help
the students to connect to society
and country.“
At IIT-Mandi, first year students can opt for one of three
credit courses: art and architecture, music and dance, and
drama. “In addition, in
their third year, they have an optional
course of four credits in
which they go out and interact with
society .This will help
them design more useful products as
an engineer,“ said a
faculty member at IIT-Mandi.
While IITs are roping in experts in various domains for these
courses, some have had to delay introducing these subjects
for want of faculty .IIT-Madras offers such courses to students
for credits whenever it
gets experts. “Since we do not hire
fulltime faculty in these specialities, offerings partly depend
on availability of guest faculty, their willingness, their
ability
to adapt to a classroom ambience, teach in English, and so on,
“ said IIT-Madras Director Bhas kar Ramamurthi.
“It is well-established that any good programme, be it in
science, engineering or medicine, should include a certain
number of courses in the liberal artshumanities. This gives
a well-rounded education,“ Ramamurthi added. About 50
students enrol at IIT-Madras each time courses on art history
and music appreciation are offered.
Not
All IITs On Board
However, not all the IITs are treading this innovative track.
IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi
do not have any such offbeat courses
or subjects as of now.
There are enough extracurricular options
on campus to take the
stress off students, including a range
of cultural, educational, athletic and social activities,
according
to the website of IIT-Bombay. It also has a number of student
festivals, the most
wellknown and popular of which are Mood
Indigo, Techfest and the Performing Arts Festival.
At IIT-Delhi, there have been discussions about bringing in
these courses, said a faculty member at academic affairs.
A decision, however, may be taken only when the curriculum
is revised two years from now.
ET VIEW
Imagineers, Not Just Engineers
India needs engineers. It also needs `imagineers'. For that to
happen, a neglected area has to be brought under the spotlight: study of the
hu manities. While introducing `off beat' subjects -the unfortunate term
being used, thereby underlining their unimportance in any holistic
knowledge-equipping process -institutions should push students to break out
of traditional silos that make for good executioners, but lousy innovators.
It was one of the world's most iconic phycisists (an adept violinist, too)
who said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.“ Our future
engineers and technologists, as well as their teachers, must realise that
being playful with their acquired knowledge is the biggest `skill set'.
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Prachi Verma
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New
Delhi
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ET19SEP15
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