Will carefree days BE here again?

Kanpur, May 9: IIT Kanpur authorities are planning reforms to reduce pressure on students after one committed suicide last week and another turned violent and cut his wrist.

Two days after 23-year-old Shailesh Sharma ended his life on May 3 because he had failed, first-year student Raunaq Garg created a scare when he started pounding his hand on a glass pane because he could not meet the director immediately. He was taken to hospital with a six-inch wound on his wrist but is safe.

“A thorough review of the grade system now in existence is under way. The challenge is to safeguard the students’ interest while not compromising with the standard of IIT-K,” dean of students’ affairs Prawal Sinha said, before leaving for the US to study the systems in place in engineering colleges there.

As a first step, the practice of public display of results will be scrapped, and a nine-point grade system instead of the five-point system that now exists is being discussed. Sinha said that at present, there are five grades ? A, B, C, D, E and F, with F denoting failure. The authorities plan to add four more ? A+, B+, C+ and D+ to allow the students more categories to fit into.

Shailesh hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his hostel room, using computer wire, after the chemical engineering student failed in two subjects. The results were declared on May 2.

Teachers have also suggested preparation leave for exams. At present, students don’t get even a one-day gap between classes and exams. The faculty is pushing for a break of at least three days.

Also, the practice of making students sit for more than one semester test a day is under review. “Now we are planning to restrict the examination to just one in a day,” Sinha said.

Shailesh’s suicide, which came months after mechanical engineering student Dharaskar Swapnil Chandrakant jumped to his death on campus on November 30 last year, has also prompted the authorities to step up counselling. Five students have committed suicide on campus since 1981.

In the past, a small team of four professors counselled students who were stressed or were not doing well in exams. The team has been expanded and now includes Prof. Omkar Dixit, who is the head, four other professors, a consultant psychiatrist and 80 students drawn from various faculties, IIT spokesperson Ravi Shankar said.

The students, chosen on the basis of their academic records and team leadership, are to act as intermediaries between the counselling department and stressed students and to report any abnormality in the behaviour of classmates. Their role ends once the counselling department takes up a case. The professors are to sort out academic problems while any behavioural disorder is to be referred to Dr Aloke Vajpayee, the consultant psychiatrist.

Vajpayee had also treated Raunaq, who was unhappy with the subjects he had been allotted and wanted to discuss the matter with the director. Sinha, who was escorting the 20-year-old to the director’s office, said: “Raunaq had suffered from depression earlier. He has a history of psychological breakdown. So while waiting for the meeting with the director, he turned violent suddenly and sustained injuries.”

Raunaq has gone back home to Mumbai with his parents for a break.