Environment minister Jairam Ramesh recently stirred the hornet's nest when he suggested that the faculty members of IITs and IIMs were not 'world class' and that the institutes were 'excellent' because of the quality of students. Jeeva V an IIT Bombay alumnus reacts:
I always wanted to be an IIT student. So when I managed to get admission in IIT Bombay, I was over the moon.
Then came the day when I started my courses at IIT. All my life, I knew I wanted to get into IIT but the moment I did, I had no clue what to do next.
Had it not been for my teachers there I probably wouldn't have figured out what I should do in those two years and later with my life.
Jairam Ramesh's statement that the faculty there isn't world class and that IITs and IIMs earn their reputation because of their students is not just insensitive but also inappropriate.
Sure there are members of the faculty that aren't as good as the others and some that are downright terrible.
However that holds for the students as well. Some of them are so terrible that you begin to wonder just how they've managed to clear the entrance exams!
These kind of people exist not just in IITs and IIMs but in all other institutions across the world.
Most of my teachers have been my source of inspiration. But apart from that they were really good.
We had an open door policy in our department. You could walk into any class whenever you wanted and walk out if the teacher didn't manage to hold your attention.
So the challenge was as much for the teacher to perform well as it was for the student. And I don't remember walking out of a lot of classes.
Just the way my teachers carried themselves -- and I think a lot of my classmates would agree with me -- and the way they continuously sought to learn new things, work on newer project interact with us the younger generation taught us a thing or two about life.
They taught us that learning is a continuous process; they taught us that there is no harm in learning from someone younger to you; they taught us that whatever you do, put your heart and soul in it and give it your best shot.
To call teachers such as these below par is not just unfair but downright ridiculous.
Jeeva completed his Masters of Design from IIT Bombay in 2000
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