Iits: Don’t just take talent to IITs: Take IITs to every talented child
Democratising scientific learning through India’s institutions of excellenceThe prime minister’s recent emphasis on making quality coaching and learning resources accessible online points in an important direction: quality learning should not depend on where a child is born or what resources his or her school can provide.It is a welcome step towards democratising access to learning.There is an opportunity to extend the same principle to scientific learning itself.India has built islands of extraordinary excellence in higher education and research. IITs, IISc, IISERs, NITs, IIITs and other institutions of excellence possess exceptional faculty, laboratories, libraries, researchers and some of the country’s brightest young minds.Also Read | Beyond IITs: Creating India’s next global institutionsThe question is: can this intellectual capital reach children much before they reach the age of competitive examinations?
From selecting talent to cultivating it
India has become remarkably good at identifying academic talent. Competitive examinations eventually select a relatively small pool of high-performing students.But talent does not suddenly appear at 17.Curiosity begins much earlier. The ability to observe, question, experiment and build develops during childhood.A child who has never seen a laboratory, interacted with a scientist or encountered research may never discover that science is something he or she can actually do.Our institutions of excellence should not only select India’s best talent. They should help cultivate it.
A constitutional purpose
Article 51A(h) of the Constitution calls upon every citizen to “develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.”Scientific temper cannot be created by textbooks alone. It develops when children are encouraged to ask why, test assumptions, seek evidence and discover that an answer can change when better evidence emerges.Scientific temper is created through experience.Our institutions of scientific excellence are uniquely placed to help make this constitutional aspiration a lived experience for millions of children.
Give every institution a catchment area
Every IIT, IISc, IISER, NIT, IIIT and other institution of excellence could develop a defined school catchment area.It could encompass government, aided and private schools, particularly in rural, semi-urban and underserved areas.The institution would become the intellectual anchor of its catchment area.Faculty could interact with teachers and students. Schoolchildren could visit laboratories and libraries. Science clubs, quizzes and projects could be supported. University students could become mentors.The relationship should be sustained, not ceremonial.A one-day visit to an IIT may inspire a child. A five-year relationship with an institution of excellence can change a child’s trajectory.And this need not be an IIT-only initiative. Each institution could bring the strengths of its own disciplines into its surrounding educational ecosystem.
Strengthen the teacher
If we want to democratise scientific learning, strengthening the teacher may be even more important than reaching the student directly.A good teacher influences hundreds of children over a career.India already has experience in strengthening teachers through programmes such as the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP) in higher technical education. But school education needs a purpose-built equivalent.A Science & Mathematics Teacher (SMT) Fellowship could enable selected schoolteachers to spend time at IITs and other institutions of excellence, gaining exposure to contemporary science, emerging technologies, experimental methods and project-based learning. The fellowship could be systematically linked to institutional catchment areas, creating sustained relationships between schoolteachers and faculty.But the fellowship should not end with a certificate. Teachers should remain connected to faculty mentors and institutional resources after returning to their schools.One trained teacher can carry scientific learning into an entire school for years.
From NSS to knowledge service
There is another Indian tradition worth revisiting.When I studied at IIT Delhi, student life included structured opportunities for social service through NSS and national service through NCC.The same principle can be reimagined for the knowledge economy.If students can give their time and effort to society, why should students of institutions of excellence not give some of their knowledge?IITs and other institutions could consider modest Knowledge Service credits as part of the undergraduate experience.Students could earn credits through mentoring schoolchildren, conducting science and mathematics sessions, supporting science clubs, guiding projects, conducting laboratory demonstrations or mentoring innovation.This is not charity. It is education through service.The schoolchild receives knowledge.The IIT student gains communication skills, empathy, leadership and a deeper understanding of the country he or she is preparing to serve.If NSS taught generations of students to give their time to society, Knowledge Service can teach a new generation to give some of its knowledge to society.The flow should be two-wayThe relationship should not be:IIT → school.It should be:IIT ↔ school.A 13-year-old may ask a question an engineer has never considered. A teacher may identify a local problem. A student project may reveal an unusual phenomenon.These questions can travel back into the institution.The school therefore becomes not merely a talent catchment area, but an innovation catchment area.A local problem can become a research question. An IIT student can develop a prototype. A faculty member can see a new research opportunity. A promising invention can lead to a patent or incubation.How can every talented child in India become part of the national innovation ecosystem, irrespective of where he or she studies?That is the larger question this model seeks to answer.The purpose of taking science to schools is not merely to create future IITians. It is also to bring the questions of ordinary children into India’s centres of scientific excellence.
Raise the return on our investment
There is an economic dimension as well.India has invested enormously in educational and scientific infrastructure—campuses, laboratories, libraries, equipment and human capital.We should ask not only what return these institutions generate for the students who enter them, but what additional return India can derive from the infrastructure, talent and knowledge it has already invested in.The laboratory that serves an IIT student can inspire a schoolchild. The faculty member who teaches a doctoral student can mentor a schoolteacher. The library that supports university research can open an intellectual world to a young learner.The real dividend from an institution of excellence is not only what it produces within its campus, but what it enables beyond it.This is ultimately about husbanding India’s human and institutional resources for the larger good—and raising the return on our investment in excellence.
From islands of excellence to a national ecosystem
India does not need to build this ecosystem from scratch.The institutions exist. The faculty exist. The laboratories and libraries exist. The students exist.What we need is to connect them.Every institution cannot reach every school. But every institution can have a catchment area. Every catchment can have a network of schools, teachers, student mentors and innovation pathways.Together, these could create a national architecture for democratising scientific learning.Connecting India’s institutions of excellence more closely with their school catchment areas can bring not only learning resources, but scientific curiosity, experimentation and innovation closer to millions of children.The ambition should not simply be to produce more IITians.It should be to produce more Indians who think scientifically, question intelligently, experiment fearlessly and innovate confidently.India has built islands of extraordinary excellence.The next task is to give those islands a catchment area—and make excellence flow outward.We should not merely take India’s talented children to its institutions of excellence.We should take India’s institutions of excellence to its children.(Nitin Agrawal is an IPS officer and an IIT Delhi alumnus)
Disclaimer: Views expressed above are the author’s own.
