IIT Kharagpur should mentor higher education institutions by sharing best practices in governance, curriculum design and research, while helping strengthen engineering colleges across Bengal, the state’s new higher education minister, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, said at the institute’s 72nd annual convocation on Saturday.
Chattopadhyay announced that the state government would constitute a task force to oversee the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) in higher education institutions, with IIT Kharagpur taking a lead role.
“Bengal’s higher education system will be stronger when our premier institutions actively nurture the growth of other academic institutions. IIT Kharagpur is an institute of eminence recognised by the Union government. It can help mentor institutions across the state by sharing best practices in governance, curriculum design, faculty development, research management and quality assurance,” he said.
IIT Kharagpur should become an institutional resource to strengthen engineering colleges, universities and emerging higher education institutions, and play a bigger role in the state’s technical education and skilling ecosystem.”
“We are constituting the NEP-implementation task force. In that committee, IIT will play a vital role,” he said after the convocation programme.
“Whatever is there in the NEP will be implemented in letter and spirit in Bengal’s higher education institutes. Apart from the IIT, the vice-chancellors of the state universities and experts from outside Bengal who have effectively implemented the NEP will be part of the task force,” he added.
Chattopadhyay’s announcement on setting up the task force for NEP sparked discussions about the possible introduction of curricula based on the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) — a component of the policy that the previous Mamata Banerjee government had avoided.
A professor of engineering at Jadavpur University described the decision to involve IIT Kharagpur in shaping the curriculum for engineering institutions as “a much-needed step”, saying Bengal’s engineering colleges had long suffered from outdated syllabuses.
“An outdated curriculum, coupled with inadequate infrastructure, is among the reasons thousands of engineering seats remain vacant every year,” the professor said.
Even Jadavpur University and Calcutta University struggle to fill all their BTech seats, as many top JEE performers prefer institutions outside the state.
“IIT will do everything possible to help frame the engineering curriculum and incorporate best practices. We want to help Bengal restore its pride. We will also be part of the NEP implementation task force,” IIT Kharagpur director Suman Chakraborty said.
Chattopadhyay also underscored the importance of engaging industry in framing the curriculum.
Among those present at the convocation were panchayat and rural development minister and Kharagpur Sadar MLA Dilip Ghosh, state health minister Sharadwat Mukherjee, and Union minister of state for education Sukanta Majumdar.