MHRD directs IITs to mentor schoolgirls to raise female count on campus

The initiative includes getting IITs to identify meritorious girls from class VIII in their respective catchment areas and coaching and counselling them as well as their parents.

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New Delhi: To boost enrollment of girl students in IITs, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD) has introduced a four-point formula to enhance the ratio from the current eight percent to 20 percent by 2021.

Reportedly held on April 28, the 51st IIT Council meeting at IIT-Bombay planned on a sub-committee report and decided to raise female enrolment in BTech programs of IITs. Following which, the MHRD issued a slew of directives.

The initiative includes getting IITs to identify meritorious girls from class VIII in their respective catchment areas and coaching and counselling them along with their parents.

"The idea is to identify some of the more promising students and then get them hooked on to the idea of studying in an IIT," the Times of India quoted a faculty member as saying. "We want to catch these girls young," he added.

The ministry sent letters to the IITs across the nation suggesting them details about how to inspire young females to take up engineering as a career. The letter also asked the institute authorities to provide them with systematic assistance in preparing for JEE-Advanced (Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced).

"Interested girl students in schools can then watch lectures on chemistry, physics, mathematics and statistics that are recorded by IIT teachers. Lecture recordings are there for biology as well," said an IIT-Kharagpur faculty member.

"Often, meritorious students in villages have no idea about how to crack the JEE. We have come up across umpteen cases of families not sending girl students to enrol in IIT coaching classes. These decisions will help girl students, especially those staying in remoter areas or those coming from financially weaker sections of society," he added.

The prevailing misconceptions are likely to be cleared with the help of these programmes, expect the IIT faculty members.

"Some parents think engineering as a subject or the IITs as a destination are meant more for boys. Some assume fluency in English is required to study in the country's premier technology institutes. We want to dispel all these wrong ideas," explained a senior IIT official.