Over 1,200 IIT, NIIT grads to teach engineering students in ‘backward areas’

Each faculty member will be paid Rs 70,000 per month

By: Shweta Ganjoo |
February 1, 2018 7:16 pm

More than 1,200 MTech and PhD graduates from premier institutions across the nation have been selected to teach in 53 government-run engineering colleges in backward areas which are lacking behind in technical education, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday.

“This is the first time such a measure has been taken to improve the quality of education in backward areas. With the initiative, more than one lakh engineering students in the most backward areas would be benefited with better quality education,” he told the media, PTI reported.

The HRD Minister said that the government had made a public appeal to MTech and PhD students from premier institutions to teach students in rural areas and serve the nation. More than 5,000 highly-qualified students responded to government’s public appeal for teachers. Check out his tweet here:

More than 1200 smart grads from IITs/NITs going to teach in engineering colleges in poor districts for 3 years!! #idealism @HRDMinistry is committed to PM @narendramodi ‘s vision of bringing in a quantum jump to quality of education our country. #Antyodaya #NewIndia pic.twitter.com/ZKZGRydDCL

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) January 31, 2018

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1,225 candidates were selected to teach, the minister said, adding that 115 of these faculty members are going to teach in seven ‘aspiring’ districts which include — Gaya and Muzaffarpur from Bihar, Ramgarh and Hazaribagh from Jharkhand, Vidisha from Madhya Pradesh, and Kalahandi from Orissa.

The minister said that 86% the teachers selected for the profile hail from institutions like IITs, NITs, IISERs and IIITs, and 24% of them have PhDs. Each of these faculty members will be paid Rs 70,000 per month in the initiative that is likely to cost the government a whopping Rs 2,300 crore over next three years till 2020.

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The selected teachers will teach in engineering colleges in Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Javadekar said. Check out his entire speech here: