Currently working with 30% fewer faculty members.
By American Bazaar Staff
Dearth of good teachers is a well-known fact in India, with new schools, colleges and professional for profit-institutions opening by the dozens every year, and the struggle to get a good faculty going one of the biggest challenges to overcome. The crunch seems to have gripped the Ivy League institution of India, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), too.
In a first-of-its-kind attempt, the IIMs are planning to introduce “smart classes,” which could be shared among all centers of the institute online. The move, aimed at beating the faculty crunch, is expected to involve global universities, too, reports Business Standard.
The proposal for these classes is going to be top on agenda when the directors of the 13 IIMs meet Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju in New Delhi next week.
The IIMs have currently been working with 30 per cent fewer faculty members than requirement. The meeting, to be chaired by Raju, will also discuss the draft Bill to convert IIMs into institutions of national importance through an Act of Parliament, says the paper.
Ajit Balakrishnan, chairman of the board of governors, IIM Calcutta, says smart classes will be an innovative move and it help students get the best on a particular subject.
According to the plan, videos of lectures by a faculty member could be shared online or through video-conferencing. Besides, courses on various management subjects could be prepared in a way that students could access those online.
“This will help the IIMs and its students in a big way. If a particular faculty member is good with derivatives, that (his lectures) can be shared through the e-route among all IIMs,” Balakrishnan adds.
The Indian Institutes of Technology, too, have a similar project through the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL).