MillenniumPost
Bengal

IIT-Kgp plans to take in more girl students from next academic year

Prodded by the ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), IIT Kharagpur has a strong plan to take in more girl students from the next academic year. "We will suo moto take more girl students from the next academic session. The number of girls in the undergraduate level is merely 9 percent. This should be at least 20 percent," IIT KGP director Partha Pratim Chakraborti said.
According to Prof Chakraborti, it has been found that though the number of girl students hovers around 8 to 10 percent, the percentage of girls excelling in their academic performance is as high as 40 percent. "More and more girl students need to pursue engineering. We will be following the supernumerary model to push the intake of girls," Prof Chakraborti said refusing to divulge the details of the process.
In a drive to ensure a better gender ratio on campus, IIT KGP has already started a special helpline for girl students along with an exclusive girl's cell. "To encourage more women research scholars and students to come up with innovative research, publish papers and take part in internationally acclaimed global conferences, the institute with the support of Infosys Foundation plans to provide travel funds for women researchers to attend top International Conferences," he said.
Speaking about the reasons behind this difference in gender ratio, Professor Chakraborti said that there is still a tendency among a number of families not to send their girls to institutions that are far away from their residences. Moreover, the entrance examination in the IITs are tougher and often parents hesitate to send their girls to quality coaching centres when it is at a good distance from their homes.
"IIT KGP will identify meritorious girls from Class VIII in their respective catchment areas and coach and counsel them as well as their parents. Some parents think engineering as a subject or the IITs as a destination are meant more for boys only. Several private coaching institutes already have programmes that offer 'IIT exam-oriented coaching' from Class VII itself to get them acquainted with what to expect in the entrance tests," a senior professor said.
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