Students of IIIT Surat forced to take lessons under the tin shed!

Although the Indian Institute of Information and Technology (IIIT) has been accorded the status of Institute of National Importance (INI) by the Central Government, one has to visit the IIIT Surat to know the reality.

Here, students are forced to study under tin sheds, just like the government schools in some interior villages.

The Central Government took more than four years to provide full-time teaching staff at the IIITSurat, and the institute was reliant on the infrastructure and teaching staff of the Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SNVIT).

Previously, the IIITS operated from the SVNIT campus in Surat, but the government recently allotted a 28-acre plot of land near Kamrej, on the outskirts of Surat near the National Highway.

According to sources, construction work at the IIITS has begun, and students are being forced to attend classes under tin sheds and amid the noise of the construction workers. It is pitiful for students of such stature to study under tin sheds.

During the pre-Covid period, the classes were held at the mentor institute at SVNIT Surat. The Memorandum of Understanding signed by SVNIT and IIIT will expire in 2022. 

According to the IIITS Students' Body, the institute's management has not provided any facilities such as classes, laboratories, founds, or infrastructure.

They also stated that students are still called for classes at the incomplete institute and are offered lodging at a boarding school's hostel located 12 kilometers away in Valthan, with no lunch except on weekdays. Four students share the hostel rooms as well.

Parents of the students who visited the college were astounded to see the sorry state of affairs at the IIITS.

The college is still under construction, with nothing to call it a college but tin sheds. Furthermore, the college is located in a flood-prone area and was not properly developed.

The first campus placement interviews for IIITS graduates were held at the SVNIT campus last year. Various corporate companies recruited approximately 44 students out of the total 64 students.

The highest annual pay package offered was Rs 41 lakh, while the average annual salary offered to Computer Science (CS) graduates was around Rs 9.18 lakh and Rs 9.77 lakh for Electronics and Communications (EC) graduates.

A video posted on social media by one of the IIITS students depicting the sorry state of affairs and the students forced to study under the tin sheds has gone viral.

"An institute with INI status from the Central Government currently has no infrastructure and facilities," IIITStudentbody stated in a tweet. Do you know which college we're talking about? This is IIIT Surat, which will be run in a shed."

'Are people with 10k JEE ranks going to study under a tin shed?' tweeted Manish Goyal. Really, students working so hard for about two years to qualify in the JEE for admission to IIITS running under the tin shed"

After reviewing all options, the IIIT Surat Student Body demanded at least a campus with basic facilities where classes could be held properly.

A hostel with three meals a day and all of the basic amenities that an INI deserves. Parents are unwilling to send their children to campus in a tin shed.