Narayana Murthy Blames Coaching Culture for the Fall of Brand IIT

Mumbai: Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy on Monday said coaching classes are hurting the prestige of the brand IIT as these flourishing money-spinners are helping students only crack the entrance tests and rued that genuine freethinkers are being left out.

"Why the IITs have become less exciting for our young today and in some cases even outside, is because of the coaching classes...it is the coaching classes, which in my opinion, have brought down the prestige of IITs in some way," Mr Murthy said while addressing the St Xavier's College students on Monday evening.

Mr Murthy, who did his Masters in Technology from IIT Kanpur, said in olden times, the IITs earned respect because they attracted talented freethinking students.

Blaming the coaching classes for just teaching the students to cracking the entrance tests, Mr Murhty said, "Today, if you submit a child for one or two years of coaching classes, that child goes through ten types of questions and if one of them is asked, you would not get the best talent," the Infosys founder chairman rued.

His comments come amidst reports of massive dropouts from these famed institutions.

Last month, the IIT-Rourkie had suspended 75 students for poor performance, even though they had passed the tests with flying colours.

Finally the IIT administration was asked by the High Court to take back the students. Even from the original five IITs the dropout rates have been on the rise since the past few years.

There are increasing voices of concern on the brand IIT losing its charm and a variety of reasons offered for it.

Mr Murthy also clarified on his recent comments on innovation, saying the remarks were misrepresented.

"What I said was that I have not seen any earthshaking invention, which have impacted the life of the common man from our scientists and engineers," he said.

He also exhorted the faculty to do more than complain about the lack of interest in the corporate sector in supporting academic sector, saying they should also put more efforts to reach out.

Drawing from the experiences of one of his close relatives who is an authority on astrophysics, Mr Murthy said even though his relative is an academic, a third of his time gets spent in meeting the industry to get required funding.