73 - Giving weightage to standard 12 marks is the step in the right direction says Professor IdiChandy

Giving weightage to standard 12 marks is the step in the right direction says Professor IdiChandy

Professor Idichandy is the former dean of IIT Madras and convener of the Chandy committee report for suggesting reforms in Joint entrance exams for IIT's which led to changes in the admission criteria for IIT's in 2006. Professor Idichandy supports the greater emphasis to standard 12th marks which gives greater emphasis to the students academic performance in school. GyanCentral spoke to professor Idichandy to get more insights about the recent changes in IIT admission process and improvements in engineering education in India.

Do you think the move to give 40% weightage to standard 12th marks for admission in IIT is a step in the right direction?

Yes. Since 2004, we were advocating this step to give importance to school education. Over the years all stake holders in school education came to the conclusion that what they need is a pass in the higher secondary and what matters is a rank in the entrance examinations of various institutions and states. None can blame the students or parents for this lopsided priority, as 12 years of schooling had no relevance in their admission to higher studies except perhaps in Arts and Science Colleges. We have witnessed principals and teachers lamenting that all their good students are in the coaching institutions and not in schools.

How will the IIT's normalize scores across boards (different boards have varied difficulty level)?

While a single board examination with a common core syllabus shall go a long way in removing this apprehension, it may be a very long term dream but achievable. The school boards are now realizing that a common syllabus is an important step in the interest of everyone and what is required is political will for its implementation across the country. As far as the normalization of marks in different school boards is concerned, the Indian Statistical Institute, based on the analysis of the data of number of years of board examination suggested a scheme of normalization which I am told is a foolproof. I am sure the method suggested by ISI will find acceptance with all.

In any case, normalization of ranks across school boards is nothing new in India as there were Institutes following this practice for admission yesteryear's. States which have done away with Entrance Examination are also practicing normalization of marks/ranks.

What are the changes you would like to see in the IIT admission process?

Basically three major changes:

1. A single national exam/test for admission to all professional colleges including IITs
2. Giving adequate weightage for the overall performance in the school and not in just Sciences and Mathematics
3. Allotment of branch/discipline based on the performance in the first three semesters in the respective institutions. The ranking based on the weighted score of the test and the school performance may be used for selecting Institutes and not branches of study.

Do you agree with Mr Narayana Murthy's statement that the standard of IIT students has lowered due to training institutes? If yes, How do you recommend improving the same?

I would tend to agree with Mr Narayana Murthy because the whole exercise of revamping the admission procedure to premier institutions is an acceptance of the fact that something is wrong.

The changes that MHRD is trying to implement in the admission procedure certainly will have effect on the quality of inputs but one should watch and monitor the processes in the next few years. My suggestion for branch allotment needs to be debated and implemented as at the end of three semesters of study, the students will be adequately informed to make the choice judiciously and based on aptitude. While these reforms are in progress, our school education and our attitude to teaching and evaluation should go in for major changes shifting the emphasis from rote learning to more of analytical and problem solving skills. Best communication practices and development of soft skills also should form part of school education. Unless these are done, the quality of inputs to Institutions of higher learning will not improve.

Are you satisfied with the research being conducted presently in IIT's? How can the research facilities be improved?

What is the yardstick for evaluating the research output of our Institutions? Are we providing our Scientists and Researchers with a level playing field? We have done very well in all fields where the goals were defined, like in ISRO, DRDO, Atomic Energy. Team work and well defined goals made all the differences in these institutions. Researches were for accomplishing targets and goals. This model cannot be compared with the research at a more fundamental levels happening in some of our research institutions. Good team work, critical mass of Scientists and Researchers in thrust and emerging areas shall go a long way in accomplishing our targets. We are in the right track and for a young democratic country like ours goal-oriented research may be one of the ways to achieve national goals.

Recently the IIM's have focused on greater diversity in a batch. Do you think the IIT's should also follow a similar path?

Diversity is already there in IITs and it evolved with time. Nevertheless, IITs can be better off, if they can improve the gender ratio amongst students and faculty in favour of women. It is easy said than done. One of the expected outcomes of taking the school performance into reckoning for admissions in premier institutions is an improvement in the number of girl students.

Having stated so, I am not very sure whether steps to artificially introduce diversity will produce the desired results.

You had strongly advocated not assigning branches on the basis of AIR. How can the system change? Do you think majority of the students will be inclined towards the most lucrative branch if he/she is given 3 semesters to decide the same?

Many of us strongly feel the same way. In fact I am told that five IITs agreed in principle to adopt the change though a consensus still eludes. At present the Institutes and branches are allotted based on the rank in JEE which in itself is an aberration in the student's overall scholastic performance. As of now the aptitude is not the deciding factor in the selection of branch but societal pressure, herd mentality and of course perceived lucrative placement. Three semesters of exposure to courses, we feel, will prepare the students to take a well informed decision about their career.

Your thoughts on the general engineering branch and its advantages?

I think the IIT system has matured enough to introduce paradigm shifts in branches of study depending on the demands of the time and the aptitude of the students. Such bold experiments need encouragement.

The AIEEE has a computer based version. Do you think the combined test will also have a computer based test version?

The number of students taking the proposed combined examination may not be significantly different from the number appearing for AIEEE today. Therefore a partial computer based test version practiced now can continue and may eventually give way to an online examination provided we create sufficient infrastructure and implement novel testing methods. After all, the exam is a test for admission to begin a professional career and not an end in itself.

What are the issues facing Indian engineering education today. What steps would you like to see to resolve them?

Today more than a million students enrol for higher technical education. There are Institutes like IITs at one end of the spectrum and Institutions without adequate infrastructure and faculty at the other end. The quality of engineers coming out from such a wide spectrum of Institutions can be best left to the imagination of the readers. If there is a widespread belief that only 10 percent of them are employable, it cannot be found fault with. The major challenge therefore is to train the available faculty and find ways and means of attracting more faculty for all Institutions. NPTEL can be a solution if adequate workshops are arranged for teachers to teach how to use the NPTEL material for the benefit of the students.

Teaching and research as a preferred career option must be "sold" to our students by encouraging the bright students to take up higher studies and later teaching and research. Rather than leaving everything to IITs and IISC and a few good institutions around the country to find solutions for all the ills facing technical education, there must be separate institutions to train a community of teachers at all levels. While there is a talk of skill development being a part of school education, why not teaching as a skill being imparted to students at an early stage at different levels? It is not a very easy task but should be a National Mission.
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IIT panels lie dormant to overhauling

New Delhi: Kapil Sibal, the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister had in October 2009, formed a series of committees during a meeting of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Council - the highest decision making body, to look into the functioning of various IITs which now lies dormant.

It has been reported that various reforms, which were to be inculcated by these committees at the IITs, are on a standstill since its formation.

A committee, on which it was entrusted to recommend the new cut-off for the IIT's Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE) and new curricula, is yet to meet.

The panel, which was assigned the reformations, comprises of secretary of science and technology, secretary of biotechnology and director general of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

It was expected that this panel would submit its report within three months while suggesting reforms in the IIT-JEE but it was not.

Most of the reforms, assigned to two other exam panels still lie unimplemented.

A panel, for example, set up under IIT-Madras deputy director, V.G. Idichandy in 2008 suggested scrapping JEE and considering school marks. The council, under former atomic energy chief Anil Kakodar, formed a second, five-member panel outlining a vision for the future of IITs.

The panel is expected to submit its report within six months. It has been four months now, the scenario is clear with the panel not having even met since then.

Following a Right To Information (RTI) exposure of the faculty selection in the previous JEEs, the reform process at the IITs, both for JEE and selection procedure, needs an urgent change.

The RTI exposure, which was filed by an IIT-Kharagpur professor Rajeev Kumar revealed that 994 candidates who were denied admissions in the year 2006 might have made it to the premier institutes had the IITs followed their stated method of determining subject cut-offs.

Although the IITs have revised their cut-off formula thrice but the need of a more transparency persists.

72 - The IIT Braindrain - The Fifth Estate

The IIT Braindrain

28 MARCH 2012 NO COMMENT

Jayant Thatte (3rd year B.Tech, EE) examines how academic life at IITs correlate to students taking up engineering as a career after graduation. The article features extensive inputs from the faculty of his department and from current undergraduates.

March, 2012: A few months ago, there was an article in The New York Times probing into the reasons causing most science major students to lose their interest in their field by the time they graduate. In context, the situation here in India isn’t very different. Narayana Murthy’s recent comments on the falling quality of students aside, today a great many IIT graduates go for non-engineering jobs such as management, banking and civil services. This might indicate that present students may not be as enthusiastic about engineering as anticipated.

Prof. Nitin Chandrachoodan, of EE department, suggests that students taking non-core options is not necessarily a bad thing: it is always beneficial if someone with a good knowledge of Engineering takes up management or government roles, where they can use their engineering knowledge to better understand technical problems. Nonetheless, given the advantage enjoyed by non-core firms in placements, a question commonly voiced is: Why can’t the current system ignite a passion among its students about the engineering they learn in their four or five years?

Today, a vast number of students write JEE after their matriculation irrespective of their interest, having led to a boom in the number of coaching centres, which start training students for the ‘JEE hurdle’ from as early as high school. Therefore, entrants into IIT undergraduate programs are not necessarily those with the greatest interest in engineering.

On the other hand, the placement scenario is tipped in favour of non-core sector, which pays much more than any core company or research institute. The world runs on money, then, it may be argued, why not IITians? Given the question it may not be surprising that CAT is a very popular option among today’s students.

This article investigates the role of the curriculum in shaping the interests and priorities of IIT undergraduates.

Exam Fever

Interviews of several students, from freshmen to final years, have revealed that on an average, the enthusiasm towards the core courses drops as the student climbs into higher semesters. Inputs by students suggest that over-burdening and inefficient course structure may be contributing to this ubiquitous phenomenon.

“Every third year student of my department writes over three dozen exams per semester (counting weekly tests), which contribute to the final grades. 

Considering that the number of working days per semester is about 75, I feel that the exam frequency is too high.”, expressed a student.

However, many students and faculty members are of the opinion that periodic evaluation is, in fact, required since it helps the students to keep up with the class. “We all know that we all need to be pushed to do work, otherwise we will only laze out. For the same reason, I feel that continuous evaluation is necessary.” another student claims.

Prof. Chandrachoodan remarks: “I think a major problem here is that students don’t really understand the kind of load students in universities in, say, the US undergo. A look at the final year projects at a university like Purdue indicates that undergraduates there are under a considerably heavier load than over here. The whole idea of continuous assessment is not something unique here, it is a standard practice in most foreign universities.”

Prof. Anjan Chakravorty of the same department expressed that there is a need to strike the right balance. “An effective solution would be to increase the number of quizzes in the academic calendar, but at the same time ensure that no professor takes exams other than the scheduled ones.” He also added: “In today’s system, everyone concentrates on getting highest level of performance, and pushes students through too many hurdles. This deteriorates the enjoyment factor in education. Students should be allowed to learn at their own pace, directing more effort towards learning fundamentals.”

“The issue with the current system is that placements depend heavily on CGPA. Hence, the students are in a race to get good grades in every course. Most of the students before coming here are used to being exceptionally good in all subjects in their schools. They try to replicate the same here, which leads to over-burdening.” he adds.

Attendance Rules

The education at IITs has gone from an informal system with personal attention to a stricter, more rigorous system. Attendance rules in several IITs highlight this aspect. In Madras, for instance, the minimum attendance rule has consistently increased, beginning with no attendance restrictions and then going to 55, 75 and since last few years, 85%. Stricter rules don’t necessarily imply boost in sincerity or enthusiasm, students claim.

“I feel that the courses should be made more interesting rather than imposing stricter attendance rules. Currently, several students attend classes just to meet attendance requirements.”, says a student. Several faculty members are, in fact complaining regarding the falling attentiveness and eagerness of students during the lectures. “Students no longer seem to be interested in what is going on in the class. This was not the case until a few years ago and the situation is getting worse. It is an issue of concern and we are working on how to improve courses and teaching methods so that they appeal to students.” said Prof. Devendra Jalihal of the EE department.

An article published in The Fifth Estate in 2011 concerned life of foreign exchange students in the campus. This articles quotes exchange students, with similar views: “Courses are quite tough to handle”, “Continuous evaluation is deterrent, and the competitive atmosphere only worsens it”, “Students don’t get enough time to indulge in their interests and passions”.

What’s Taught In Courses

A fourth year integrated M.Sc. Physics student from IIT Kanpur points out some issues directly related to his courses: “They are mostly theoretical in nature with little practical implications being introduced. So students cannot relate the course with its possible uses, and they may eventually lose interest.”

“Mech department in IIT-B has lots of projects continuously going on. So students always find something related to their department to invest time in.” said a second year student of mech department, IIT Bombay. This practical experience, he claims, has helped the mech students to have a sustained interest in their department.

Prof. Jalihal suggested that redundancy and repetitions can be eliminated if a single professor takes all related courses in successive semesters, for a particular class. He also complained that many times faculty do not get adequate feedback from the students. Prof. Chakravorty responds regarding the theoretical nature of courses by noting that “Theory may not always be fascinating, but is essential to become a good engineer. If theory is not taught in educational institutes, students won’t get a chance to learn it anywhere else.”

“Most of what is taught in a course is taught for a reason. At that point, the students may not find the connection with the industry, but they should trust the teacher. Or, they can just search the net to find out how the topic fits into the bigger picture.” said Prof. Shanthi Pavan, of the EE department.

Active Learning

Most of the IITs are already probing into the causes of declining academic motivation among students and taking measures and introducing reforms for the better. Many faculty members are now stressing on active learning as a means to keep up the students’ attention in courses.

Prof. Chakravorty elucidates a particular idea: “The professor teaches fundamentals for about half a semester. For the remaining part, students are divided into groups and assigned particular topics on which they are expected to do research and read up for about a month. After this, new groups of four each are formed by taking one member from each of the original groups. Within a group, one each member has mastered a different topic. They spend the last month of the semester teaching these to each other. In this method, since students actively participate in learning as well as teaching process, their fundamentals become clear.”

The Placement Soup

The system in IITs that governs placement, particularly sequential slotting preference, have also been put under the microscope. The first couple of days are allocated mostly to non-core companies including investment banks which offer very high pay packages, while the core companies usually start only on second or third day.

As a result, core companies which come on later days get a lower quality of students than what they expect, leading to an impression that quality of engineers graduating from IITs is not up to the mark. Prof. Jalihal suggested that the system should be modified so that each department is able to suggest two or three core companies that should come on the first couple of days of placement season, in addition to the regular non-core ones.

Prof. Shanthi Pavan gave it from the student’s perspective: “There are just too many job positions being offered that require no engineering expertise at all. A student who acquires more knowledge in his field most often ends up with a lower salary core job as against his friend, who may not have learnt anything at all in his department, but is doing a non-core job. So, what motivation do the students have to learn engineering?”

It is not attempted here to give a bottom-line solution to systemic problems in IITs today. Observations above suggest that streamlining education for bettering the student experience is a topical subject, deserving careful planning from the administration and inputs from the students. At the same time it is reassuring to note that alumni continue to do remarkably well in the non-engineering fields that they have entered, leaving a question of whether the IITs could be platform for a broader social role than they were originally intended to be.

71 - IITs want say in new test format - TOI

IITs want say in new test format

TNN | Mar 29, 2012, 04.31AM IST

CHENNAI: The Indian Institutes of Technology want a say in the new entrance examination that the Centre has proposed to replace the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination in 2013.

While members of the senate of IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Delhi have written to the HRD ministry asking that their suggestions be taken into consideration, the IIT-Madras Faculty Association has sent its views to other IITs to express solidarity on the issue. Some of these academics say they understand the intentions for the change, but charge the ministry with rushing through with the change without considering the views of stakeholders.

"We were never consulted on the proposed change. We are for the inclusion of higher secondary marks in the admission process and feel that the marking formula proposed by the Indian Statistical Institute is fair. But why is the ministry in such a hurry to start the new test in 2013 without looking into the pros and cons?" asked S K Das, president of the IIT-Madras Faculty Association. 

"We agree the system must be modified and want to provide suggestions on how best to make the change. The ISEET proposal is sketchy and nothing has been documented. Whatever we know is through a presentation and from media," said chairman of the board of governors of IIT Kanpur M Anandakrishnan.

70 - Admission: IITs up ante against govt proposals - Hindustan Times

Admission: IITs up ante against govt proposals

Vanita Srivastava, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, March 27, 2012

Students and faculties of IITs have opposed the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry’s proposal to change the format of IIT-JEE examination from 2013 and give 40% weightage to board examination marks. Sources said many IITs, including those in Kanpur, Delhi, Mumbai and Khargapur, have not supported the proposed changes in the current form.

The All India IIT Faculty Federation has sent a letter to HRD minister Kapil Sibal and its copy to the Prime Minister’s Office stating that the academic issues, including the admission standards and process, were primarily the sole responsibility of the senates.

“The views of IIT senates must form the basis for the final formulation of admission process. It is shocking that till today the views of the senates have not been invited,” the federation said.

Maintaining that the faculties were initiating discussions at the institutional platforms, including senate or general body meetings, the federation said the opinion that had emerged didn’t support the proposals.

The federation has demanded that the proposal be put on hold till the senates of IITs come up with their own views and recommendations.

The IIT Kanpur Students’ Senate, which met recently, stated that the Ramasami committee targeted certain problems in the current system, including commercialised coaching classes, rural-urban and gender disparities, negligence of school education and increased stress on students. However, it said, the report did not clearly mention how its recommendations would solve these problems.

Observing that normalisation of marks of students, belonging to more than 30 different boards, was a complex and non trivial task, the senate said the board exams lacked transparency and uniformity. It also said each institute should get freedom to decide on its own admission process.

Stating that any decision of such magnitude should involve consultation with all stake holders, the student senate said the panel report had suggested interactions with IIT faculties and students. But, it said, no interaction on the proposals had been conducted among the panel members and students and faculty of IIT Kanpur so far.

69 - IIT Faculty Federation & Senates of IIT K and Delhi question HRD move to replace IIT-JEE - Economic Times

IIT Faculty Federation & Senates of IIT K and Delhi question HRD move to replace IIT-JEE

ET Bureau Mar 26, 2012, 02.08AM IST

NEW DELHI: The government's proposal to put in place a common entrance examination for engineering and science has run into a roadblock.

The Senates of IIT Kanpur and Delhi, and the IIT Faculty Federation have questioned the decision to replace the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (IITJEE).

They have decided to ask the human resources development ministry to hold on and further debate the issue of examination reforms.

Their objection come soon after states like Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry and West Bengal sought more time to study the proposal.

The ministry hopes to make the common entrance examination, Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test (ISEET), operational from 2013.

This single national entrance test for admission into engineering and science courses would be applicable for all centrally-funded institutions, such as IITs, National Institutes of Technology, IISER, IIIT, IISc (Bangalore), IIEST (Shibpur) and NERIST (Itanagar).

It will replace the IIT-JEE - used for admissions by the 15 IITs, Institute of Technology, Benaras Hindu University and Indian School of Mines. It will also replace the AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Examination) used by the National Institutes of Technology. The common eligibility test will consist of two parts.

The first will be an aptitude test which will be objective type testing the students' abilities of comprehension, critical thinking, and logical reasoning. The second is an advance test based on the students' problem solving abilities for basic science subjects. The aim of both tests would be to indicate the student's scholastic level and aptitude for science and engineering.

The new system would also give weightage to the School Board Examination or class XII results. The proposal considered by the Central Advisory Board on Education set 60:40 weightage ratio for the eligibility test and class XII results, respectively.

The Senate has disapproved the manner in which the HRD ministry is pushing through these changes. The Senate is the highest decision making body in the IIT.

The IIT Faculty Federation has opposed the proposed reforms, arguing that the new examination system wouldn't be able to assess whether students have either the aptitude or knowledge to be admitted to the country's top engineering schools.

The Senate of IIT Kanpur is understood to have differed with the proposed single entrance test with weightage formula for admission into IITs. The senate members said the method suggested for factoring in Class-XII score in selection would not help the IITs to ensure that the best students were admitted.

Their argument is that since the assessment system varies among school boards, it would be not be possible to assess all students by the same scale and weightage. The IIT Faculty Federation is also opposing the weightage formula.

68 - Single national engineering entrance exam to replace multiple tests draws ire of IIT faculty - Financial Express

Single national engineering entrance exam to replace multiple tests draws ire of IIT faculty

JYOTSNA BHATNAGAR

Posted: Friday, Feb 24, 2012 at 0454 hrs IST

Ahmedabad: The decision to hold a single entrance test for all centrally-run engineering institutes from next year has stirred a hornet’s nest, with three bluechip IITs writing to the Union human resource ministry opposing the proposal. Faculties of IITs in Delhi, Mumbai and Kanpur have voiced their concerns, saying introducing the test without normalising marks across state boards in too little time could affect current Class 12 students and lead to a bunching of candidates at the top of the rank list.

The Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test (ISEET), which will eliminate multiple admission tests including the IIT-JEE, is expected to reduce stress on students. The three IITs that have protested, along with the IITs in Kharagpur and Guwahati, are counted as the best among India’s 15 IITs.

The institutes’ primary concern is the impact on the batch of Class 12 students who appear for IIT-JEE and other exams this year. At an emergency senate meeting last week, IIT Delhi faculty members expressed concern that introducing ISEET from next year will “not be feasible and will be unfair to the current class 12 students”. This is largely because while two attempts are allowed for JEE, the current batch of Class 12 is unaware that in the new scheme of things, their board scores will carry 40% weight. “If they do not make it in 2012, then in 2013 their Class 12 marks will get counted but they were not aware of this when they appeared for Class 12,” states a note prepared by the faculty, a copy of which is with FE.

IITs are also miffed over providing weightage for Class 12 examinations without specifying a formula for normalising marks from India’s 42 secondary school boards. The JEE system so far has used Class 12 marks only as a cut-off. The institutes worry that a deadline has been set to implement the normalisation, without specifying how the process would take place. Normalisation has not been tried even in 15% of the boards and even data prepared by the Ramasami Commission evaluating the feasibility of the JEE revamp have data from only four school boards.

The institutes feel there should be at least one dry run of normalisation before implementing the formula. “It would be advisable to have a dry run. Any changed system should come after the consent of the IIT senates,” says Prof Sanjeev Sanghi, president of the faculty forum of IIT Delhi. Normalisation is seen as a herculean task involving obtaining data from all boards representing a heterogenous mix with different levels of complexity, grading and scores, and that too by the first or second week of June.

The experience of BITS, Pilani indicates that such an exercise was turning lop-sided in favour of a couple of state boards and hence that Institute shifted to an entrance exam. IITs are also apprehensive about the methodology and reported malpractices in some state board exams.

The IITs feel that at best, the normalised/percentile scores should be used as a filter and not contribute to final scores. The IIT Kanpur senate resolution passed earlier this month is firmly of the opinion that board marks should not be used for ranking.

IITs also feel that if expectation levels in different exams are different, a single test is not the cure. Such an exam will lead to bunching at the top with perhaps over a thousand students could score the same marks, complicating the rank allotment process.

It is also being felt that the single test won’t be able to reduce stress or curb the so-called ‘menace’ of coaching. In fact, if school exam scores are included, coaching classes could get more business. As long as there is a big gap between the number of seats in good colleges and the number of students, it will be difficult to stop candidates from seeking extra help.

The premier IITs have proposed a two-tier JEE with a first level of multiple-choice questions (MCQ) and the second one a subjective type exam. The MCQ exam should be used only as a screening test and a second exam based on subjective type questions in physics, chemistry and mathematics administered to a manageable number of students (say, 40,000 to 50,000). In addition, if it is strongly desired by all, there could be a component of Class 12 marks, either suitably normalised or on a percentile basis, which could be weighed along with the MCQ exam, but this score is only to be used as a filter for the second exam. Finally, the responsibility of conducting these exams should lie with IITs. The IIT Bombay faculty forum meeting held a week ago recommended that the undergraduate admission process should go back to the two-tier format that existed earlier.

IIT faculties also feel slighted that they were kept in the dark by the ministry while taking such a major decision. IIT Delhi note categorically points out that “such important decisions are being taken without proper discussions” with IITs, which are not only directly impacted by this change but will also be nodal in implementing it. “The immaculate reputation of the JEE is due to the commitment and involvement of the IIT faculty at all stages. So, if there is a problem with the JEE, the solution too should come from IITs,” said a senior faculty member of a leading IIT.

67 - Now, JEE with Class 12 count faces ‘feasibility glare’ - Daily Pioneer

Now, JEE with Class 12 count faces ‘feasibility glare’

THURSDAY, 02 FEBRUARY 2012 00:00 PIONEER NEWS SERVICE | NEW DELHI

The proposal of new single Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) being proposed for admission to IITs, IIITs, NITs, IISER and State Government-run engineering colleges with weightage on Class 12 marks has raised questions on its ultimate feasibility.

According to sources, combining 12th standard marks in the selection merit may bring the same 100 per cent cut-off fiasco as recently witnessed by DU, as there are many boards, which will start inflating their marks, in such a way so as to neutralise the normalisation impact.

Talking on condition of anonymity, the experts expressed reservations on normalisation. They pointed out T Ramasami committee, which is working on new single JEE, chose to ignore that with liberal policy of awarding marks in many State boards, there are many hundreds of candidates with scores 100 per cent or above 100 per cent — some of these even award bonus marks to students, eg, for sports activity (Maharashtra State) enabling students to score above 100 per cent. Similar is the case with other boards too as Odisha.

Further, when the Board becomes aware of the normalisation formula, it is likely to start awarding inflated marks in such a way to take advantage of the prescribed normalisation formula, felt the sources.

“This had occurred in the past for whomsoever who used the normalisation”, the sources said, reminding that most bodies (eg, UPSC, BITS, IIT’s GATE), which earlier used normalisation of marks for their selections/admissions, have already done away with such concepts.

According to them, if such a situation is allowed, it may ultimately lead to cut-throat competition in Class X and XII as observed in DU, with cutoffs going to 100 per cent. Even with 100 per cent, a student will not able to get an IIT seat of his choice, feared the sources.

Ramasamy chose to ignore the major conclusions drawn by the statistical experts that “subject scores do not appear to be comparable, the question of combining them for comparability of aggregate scores across the boards does not arise,” the sources pointed out.

The above was concluded with statistical analysis of XII standard marks of various boards that there existed poor correlation among the marks scored across the boards. A natural inference of the statistical analysis is that the marks, scored across the boards, cannot be compared, thereby naturally discarding use of the normalised ranks.

The above important statistical analysis of the ISI expert report had not been included in Ramasamy’s presentation. They further argued it would further enhance the importance of the coaching institutes.

“These institutes are elated with the proposal of weightage to 12th standard marks indicating that the students would be compelled to get enrolled for full two-year course instead of the evening or weekend classes.

66 - Rethinking the Mother of All Exams - New York Times

LETTER FROM INDIA

Rethinking the Mother of All Exams

By MANU JOSEPH

Published: February 1, 2012

NEW DELHI — For more than half a century, one aptitude test has determined the self-esteem, future and even the spouses of generations of Indian adolescents, chiefly boys. The Joint Entrance Exam of the Indian Institutes of Technology is a brooding cultural force that is visible across the nation, on signboards and newspaper advertisements, as “I.I.T.-J.E.E.,” the first abbreviation many Indian children learn. It is an ominous inevitability for millions of boys, a fate decided in their cradles, a certainty like death. Last year nearly half a million candidates took the test — one of the toughest exams in the world — to compete for about 5,000 seats in the best of the I.I.T.’s and nearly as many seats in the less sought-after institutes. Coaching for the J.E.E. is an industry valued at billions of rupees. There is so much demand that some coaching classes have their own entrance exams. But the J.E.E. is now on its way out.

It is not the only engineering entrance exam in India. Lower down the rungs, there are other colleges, which require other exams to qualify. Competition is fierce all the way. Disturbed by the number of entrance exams, the Human Resource Development Ministry has decided to devise a common exam that would govern the admission process of several engineering institutes, including the famed I.I.T.’s. The nature of the new aptitude test, which is expected to debut in 2014, would be different from the J.E.E. The selection procedure, too, would be very different from what the I.I.T.’s use today. So, the type of person who enters the I.I.T.’s in the future may be very different. Opinion is divided on whether the new I.I.T. graduate will be better or worse than current alumni.

The I.I.T.’s are nothing without the national perception of the “IITian.” And the perception is that he is primarily a he. And that he must be very smart. As some Indians point out with a hint of pride, in Scott Adams’s “Dilbert” comic strip, the brilliant Asok, who died on a Moon mission and reincarnated as part man and part Snickers bar, is from I.I.T. The fame of the institutes is an enduring relic from the years when socialism impoverished India and securing an elite engineering degree became the most elegant way for smart Indians to escape to America.

The I.I.T.’s were never great centers of learning by world standards.

Rather, they were museums that collected young Indians with excellent quantitative abilities. In the 1980s and ’90s, the migration of Indian scientific talent to the United States, deplored here as a “brain drain,” became a subject of intense debates in schools and colleges. Once, during the convocation ceremony at I.I.T.-Madras, the chief speaker received a standing ovation when he declared, “Brain drain is better than brain in the drain.” His words traveled with the speed of a rumor across Madras, also known as Chennai, through homes and schools, evoking laughter and applause, and delivering a bleak reminder to young boys that their lives depended on passing the J.E.E.

In Madras in the ’80s, many smart girls were not allowed by their families to take the J.E.E. for fear that it would then be hard to get them married. One girl I knew who cleared the exam was not allowed by her parents to attend the institute, probably for the same reason. But the boys who made it to the I.I.T.’s became the heroes of their neighborhoods. Other boys hated them, and pretty girls wanted to marry them. The adulation would follow them until the end of their time.

The glamour of the I.I.T.’s has always inspired parents to force their children to take the J.E.E. Increasingly, those parents are from modest educational and financial backgrounds. A few years ago, in Mumbai, I walked into a J.E.E. coaching class that conducted its own entrance exam to filter out 9 out of 10 applicants. An orientation program for parents was under way. A man who could not read English was sitting with brochures and study materials. He was disturbed that I was carrying a red book while he had not been given any such book. I told him that the book I was holding was a novel called “Love in the Time of Cholera.”

“Is it a guide?” he asked.

For a long time, the IITians were from urban, literate middle-class families, and it was inevitable that their success would inspire small-town Indians to prepare for the mother of all entrance exams.

Coaching colleges essentially dispensed with formal schooling and focused on the J.E.E. alone. As they became increasingly successful, it became evident that the J.E.E. was no longer an aptitude test but a giant goal that could be achieved through years of brute hard work and coaching.

I.I.T. professors and alumni have been mourning the falling quality of the students. Last October, Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Infosys and an I.I.T. alumnus, told an audience in New York that the new IITians were substandard. “They somehow get through the Joint Entrance Examination. But their performance in I.I.T.’s, at jobs or when they come for higher education in institutes in the U.S. is not as good as it used to be.”

It is improbable that the I.I.T.’s will ever regain their old glory. The circumstances of the nation have changed, and the smartest Indians do not need an engineering degree to find a place in the world or to make a decent living. Also, the government has not invested enough in the I.I.T.’s, and the most talented scientific minds have the option to enroll in genuinely outstanding centers of learning in the West instead of being stuck in a place that has derived its prestige largely from the fact that only one in 50 cracks its entrance exam.

Manu Joseph is editor of the Indian newsweekly Open and author of the novel “Serious Men.”

A version of this article appeared in print on February 2, 2012, in The International Herald Tribune.

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