Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani informed the Lok Sabha during Question Hour that in the three-year period between 2012-13 and 2014-15, Over 4,400 students dropped out of IITs and NITs due to various reasons including “academic stress”. As many as 2,060 students dropped out from various Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and 2,352 students dropped out from the National Institutes of Technology (NITs).
“The reasons for dropouts may be attributed to shifting to other colleges/institutions, personal reasons, medical reasons, getting jobs during PG courses, inability to cope with academic stress etc,” Irani said.
Must Read: IIT Kharagpur Students Develops Underwater ROBOT
The issue came to light after the IIT-Roorkee recently expelled 73 students for their under-performance and later took them back to give another chance for improving their performance amid an uproar in the political circles as most of these students belonged to the reserved categories.
Academic Stress, Reason for Students Calling it Quits in IITs, NITs
The rate of dropouts is only increasing in IITs. In 2014-15, 757 students dropped out of IITs against 697 in the previous year and 606 in 2012-13. IIT Roorkee saw the most dropouts at 228, followed by IIT Kharagpur, 209, and IIT Delhi, 169. In NITs, the dropout rate has been coming down. There were 717 dropouts in 2014-15, against 785 the previous year and 850 students in 2012-13.
Also Read: Daily-wager’s sons in IIT top-500
Irani said there is a mechanism for helping students who are under stress. The government is committed to address issues related to academic stress, she added.
Experts said that regardless of whichever way the students enter an institute, some are unable to cope with the intense level of coaching provided at IITs and join other colleges because of mental depression or other disorders. S K Sharma from IIT Varanasi said another major reason for dropping out is the strong prevalence of addiction towards narcotics and other drugs, which, he alleged, were available in the campuses.