A team from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras met Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Monday to discuss methods to take the B.Sc Data Science online programme to children in government and government aided schools.
The 4-year online B.Sc programme was introduced last year and is open to all. Candidates are provided study material and can take the course on clearing the qualifier exam.
The team that met the Chief Minister included Institute Director V. Kamakoti, coordinator of National Programme On Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) Vignesh Muthuvijayan, Registrar Jane Prasad, and Dean of Administration Koshy Varghese.
Mr. Vignesh said currently there are around 10,000 students enrolled in the programme and another 5,000 are appearing for the qualifier exam shortly. Of them, around 2,100 are from Tamil Nadu and as many as 370 candidates have done their schooling in government and aided schools. “We are aiming to increase this number significantly so that we have around 1,000 students from government schools,” he said.
“We will reach out to students from rural areas. It helps a lot with up-skilling and getting jobs. Since it is an online programme, students can pursue this while doing another degree or in-between jobs. The training has a lot of project components and hands-on training. It is a proper degree approved by the IIT-Madras. There is rigour and high quality training is given to the students,” he added.
Mr. Kamakoti said the aim is to interact with the students in the State. The institute has proposed an interactive programme to inform the students and teachers that IIT is within their reach. “Unlike JEE which is a selection exam this (B.Sc Data Science) is a qualifying exam. We will work closely with the State government and enable it. We look forward to working with the Education Department. Data science is a growing field and for at least 15 to 20 years there will be no dearth of jobs,” he said.
The institute has proposed to have short, frequent interactions and try to identify trainers. “We will basically talk to them about how to approach the exam. In one or two years we are confident of reaching our aim of 1,000 students, irrespective of the medium of instruction,” he added.
Mr. Vignesh said students would study for four weeks using the study material supplied by the institute before taking an in-person test from a test centre.
