In reality, it is not yet an address that one can get to and find the institute standing. It is just that the government of Goa has finally allotted land for the institute, 10 lakh square metres at Guleli in Sattari taluka. It will take another few years before the IIT campus is constructed and the institute moves to Guleli and begins functioning from there. But given that it took three years to even reach this stage, there is relief that an institute that offers high standards of teaching did not turn its back to Goa, because the State was unable to give it the land that it needed to set up.
Unfortunately, the IIT was not the only institute that had to wait for land to be allotted to it. The National Institute of Technology (NIT) was also made to wait for an inordinate length of time before it was given its parcel of land. The NIT, which opened in Goa years before the IIT, is yet to move to its new premises, but construction has started. Currently, the IIT and the NIT are sharing space with the GEC at Farmagudi. It should have been a matter of pride to have a centre of excellence in the State, unfortunately this is how cursorily institutes of higher education are treated in Goa. The State should have welcomed such educational institutes, but just the opposite has happened in both cases.
If we look at the engineering education sector today, the State has an IIT, a National Institute of Technology (NIT), a Government Engineering College, and about four private engineering colleges. There are also six polytechnics. Currently, between 1500 and 1800 engineers are being readied every year in the State, a large number. It is time that the State also produces high quality graduates in other areas.
The government, a few years ago, had announced its intention to promote Goa as an educational hub. Apart from that statement, there appears to have been no other progress made to translate the intention into action. The government needs to consider converting Goa into an educational hub that will bring branches of top institutions from India to the State, as well as international colleges setting up institutes here. For that of course it needs to identify and set aside the land first. No private institute or college will be willing to invest in the State if it is going to face long delays of getting land. But if the IIT and NIT get to be fully functional from their own premises in a short time, then the State would be in a position to market itself to other institutions, private ones included, as an educational hub, to which the best of institutions would be attracted.
We have to remember that the NIT and the IIT did not select Goa as a host. This is part of a larger plan of the Union government to have such institutes across the country. Now, the State has to look beyond these at other colleges, institutions, research centres and lure them to Goa, it would have to aggressively sell the State as an educational hub and given the current economic situation where investment is low, an educational hub may be just the alternative that the government can look for.
Educational institutions such as an IIT, NIT, AIIMS, which are ranked high for their excellence in teaching and the qualified professionals they produce, can only be assets to the State. They need to be promoted, pampered even. If we have failed to do so earlier, than Goa can remedy that and do it now.
