Date:12/04/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/04/12/stories/2006041202870500.htm

Back IITs, IIMs have systems to help non-merit students

Anjali Prayag

QUOTA PROPOSAL

"Nevertheless, this hike in reservation is seen as a backward step and will certainly divide the student community."

Bangalore , April 11

`Reservation' is not new or strange to either IITs or IIMs. Sources in Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, told Business Line that the IIMs have already put in place mechanisms to cope with such candidates by giving special attention to them for assimilating the standards of the institute.

Bridge courses

"We have been conducting bridge courses for students who don't come from the general pool and coach them in subjects such as English, communication and quantitative analysis," they said.

Sources said these students are on the campus one month ahead of others and are given special coaching so that they measure up to the standards set by the institute. But the good news is that most of these students do manage to cope with the pressures.

Backward step

"Nevertheless, this hike in reservation is seen as a backward step and will certainly divide the student community," say sources.

According to a former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, "there are several cases of non-merit category students who do not find competitive placements and we have had to persuade some of the Central PSUs to absorb these students into their employee pool."

Mr G. Prahlad Rao, Director, Career Plan, a training institute for CAT aspirants, expects the student community to be "disappointed" if the proposal to hike the quota in IITs and IIMs comes through.

These two institutes have well-oiled systems in place and this new proposal will only rock the boat and create a chaotic situation, he says.

Drop-outs

"Statistics show that about 25 per cent of the students that come through the quota pool have difficulty in coping with the pressures of the course and drop out of these premier institutes a few months after they get into the course," says Dr Pallabh Bandyopadhyay, Chief People Officer, Scandent Solutions Ltd.