160 - Dissent grows over new pattern of IIT-JEE - Two Circles

Dissent grows over new pattern of IIT-JEE

30 May 2012 - 4:56pm

By Anjali Ojha, IANS,

New Delhi : Even as the government has decided to go ahead with a new pattern for the joint entrance exam for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT-JEE), the teachers and alumni of the IITs are not happy, some even planning to approach the courts.

According to sources, as many as five out of seven senates of the IITs had expressed opposition to the idea but the government chose to proceed regardless.

President of IIT Delhi Alumni Association (IITDAA) Somnath Bharti said the step diluted the vision of the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru about the IITs, and added that the association may go to court to get a stay on the government decision "if required".

"This is dilution of the IIT envisioned by Pt. Nehru," said Bharti.

"We will have a meeting soon and, if required, we will approach the court," Bharti, who is also a Supreme Court advocate and a former member of IIT Delhi senate, told IANS.

He added that they felt cheated as the HRD minister had assured them that the government would not proceed with any change if there is dissent. According to sources, except for the senates of IIT Roorkee and Chennai, all others were adverse to the proposal.

The new pattern of engineering entrance to be implemented from 2013 will have single engineering entrance for the IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and other Central Educational Institutions, merging the JEE and AIEEE (all-India engineering entrance examination).

The exam will have two papers, one 'main' and the other 'advance' entrance. The final marks will be calculated on the basis of the scores of these two exams, along with a fixed "weightage", or percentage, from the marks scored in the school board exam.

However, as scores vary in different school boards, the Class 12 board marks will first be "normalised", which is a process of equalising marks from different state and central boards.

Bharti, however, was of the view that the formula to normalise marks from different boards was faulty and it would only bring loss to students.

"Normalising scores is absolutely not possible. There have been reports from various agencies, including from the computer science department of IIT Delhi which says the formula is faulty and would rather do injustice," he said.

A senior professor from IIT Delhi, who did not wish to be named, echoed Bharti's views saying that the procedure has several loop holes.

"This pattern cannot stop coaching institutions, because the problem is lack of proper training in school. Students will keep going to coaching centres till the government does something about quality of education in schools," he said.

The professor also expressed apprehensions about the step being more political than beneficial to students.

"I wonder if the step is for the benefit of students, or politically motivated to show the government is working," he added.

The government has announced that the new pattern would come into force in 2013, and the next Lok Sabha elections are scheduled in 2014.

Anand Kumar, the founder of Super 30 -- a one-of-its-kind IIT entrance coaching institution for underprivileged students, said the new common admission examination would further complicate the problem and make it more difficult for students, especially those studying in rural areas with poor school infrastructure.

"This new process will be cumbersome, and will add to the confusion and pressure on the students," Kumar told IANS.

Kumar also said that the new pattern of 'main' and 'advance' entrance exams on the same day will add to the psychological burden on the students and also give the exam an "elitist" look as it may end up "excluding rural students".

Vice president at IIT-JEE coaching centre TIME institute Ajay Antony, however, said the new pattern will not make much difference and it is like old wine in a new bottle.

"All the difference is that they will now include board exam marks. Other than that, it is the same entrance exam if you see it closely," said Antony.

(Anjali Ojha can be contacted at anjali.o@ians.in)

159 - From 2013, class 12 results may become crucial for entry to IITs - India Today

159 - From 2013, class 12 results may become crucial for entry to IITs - India Today 

Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal has come up with a new formula for the selection of students for the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) proposing new guidelines for its entrance test.

Sibal on Monday said that the test for IITs would have three elements from next year giving weight in equal proportion to senior secondary school results.
The HRD minister called the move important as students were losing interest in class 12 boards and not preparing seriously as they concentrated on the IIT entrance test.

He said the new move has been discussed at the council level and the central government had also consulted state education ministers on the issue. The move is aimed at reigniting interest of students in board exams.

Sibal said the idea came after he met the members of IIT council to discuss the means to reduce stress on students appearing for the entrance test. He said the proposed moves were being taken after going through board exam patterns for the last four years.

"One of the fundamentals of any examination is to reduce the stress... We have analysed board examinations for the last four years... We are also in process to consult the state ministers," Sibal said.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/from-2013-class-12-results-may-become-crucial-for-entry-to-iits/1/197978.html

158 - Kapil Sibal forced to revise IIT test plan -India Today

Kapil Sibal forced to revise IIT test plan

The smart Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have outwitted the suave lawyer-politician Kapil Sibal. The premier engineering institutes have accepted his 'one nation one test' proposal, but only on their own terms.

From next year, there will be one entrance test called Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission to undergraduate engineering programmes of all centrally funded technical institutions. The JEE will be conducted in two parts - a main test and an advance test - and will have multiple-choice objective-type questions.

The NITs, IIITs, IISERs and other centrally funded technical institutions will toe the human resource development minister's line by according 40 per cent weightage to the Class XII Board exam marks (normalised on percentile basis), 30 per cent to the performance in the JEE-main test and 30 per cent to the performance in JEEadvance test.

However, the minister was forced to revise this formula in case of the IITs in the wake of the "stiff resistance" by the institutes.

Relenting to the major demands made by the IITs, Sibal announced on Monday that the 15 premier engineering institutes will use the Class XII Board exam marks and the performance in the JEE-main test only for filtering the best candidates.

The IITs will then check the JEE-advance papers of the top 50,000 aspirants who qualify on the basis of the screening process. The final all-India-rank (AIR) list will then be based only on the marks scored in the JEE-advance test.

The HRD minister has also allowed the IITs to have a complete academic control of the advance test, which means the questions of the advance paper will be set by the joint admission board of the IITs.

The decision was arrived at a joint council meeting of the IITs, NITs and the IIITs on Monday.

Justifying the rationale behind the decision, director of IIT-Kanpur Sanjay Dhande said: "Historically, the academic training at the IITs has been very different. Any experiment in technical education is introduced at our institutes first and then emulated by the rest of the country. Hence, the admission process of the IITs should be different."

Sibal, however, was more candid. "Let's be honest here. There was a lot of resistance from the IIT system. We have accepted their point of view that I don't understand that much," he said.

The 'one nation one test' was first proposed in 2010 during the IIT council meeting in Manesar.

The rationale behind the common entrance exam for engineering or the JEE was to reduce psychological and financial stress on students because of multiple entrance tests and also to give more importance to Class 12 results than private coaching.

Consultation with different stakeholders proved to be a Herculean task for the ministry and took almost twoand-half years. Along the way, the IITs expressed their objections to the use of Board marks in determining admission. They also felt that following the same admission process as others could dilute their brand equity.

To keep his mission on track, that is to introduce the test by 2013, Sibal has had to make compromises. The only consolation for him is that the IITs may come on board and accept the ministry's formula (40-30-30) by 2015.

"The IITs have agreed to embrace the 40-30-30 formula by 2015, if they are happy with its effect on the NITs and IIITs," the minister said.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/kapil-sibal-forced-to-revise-iit-test-plan/1/198038.html

157 - New IIT exam comes in for all round criticism - TOI

New IIT exam comes in for all round criticism

Himanshi DhawanHimanshi Dhawan, TNN | May 30, 2012, 02.36AM IST

NEW DELHI: The combined entrance test for admission to central engineering institutes including Indian Institutes for Technology (IITs) has come under fire from the institute's alumni and students, with the IIT Faculty Federation shooting off a letter to PM Manmohan Singh strongly opposing the move.

IIT Delhi alumni president Somnath Bharti said they were considering legal recourse. "We are looking at legal options," he said, adding that the new format would increase dependence on coaching institutes and would be subject to the varying standards of Class XII boards, bringing down the standard of the premier institute.

Sources in IIT said several directors were unhappy with the decision to bring these changes but were left with little option but to comply.

All India IIT Faculty Federation secretary A K Mittal said, "We feel cheated. Despite promising us that no steps will be taken if there is any dissent, the HRD minister has gone ahead." Mittal said they had written to the PM highlighting the practical problems of introducing a new format in 2013.

Five out of the seven IIT senates had opposed the move and are opposed to academic control being taken away from IIT.

Author Chetan Bhagat, an ex-IITian, tweeted, "It makes me extremely sad to see an institution that gave me so much being destroyed by politicians." Describing the decision to have a new exam as "disastrous", Bhagat said, "The new IIT selection rules part of government's 'Can't make new A-grade institutions. Let's destroy what we have policy."

In a sharp criticism about weightage being given to Class XII board exam, Bhagat said, "In my Class XII practicals, people who knew the teacher got full marks. Now that will count in the IIT entrance."

He was joined by Super 30's Anand Kumar who said the decision would tilt against rural students. "Students who come from rural backgrounds manage to pass by studying on their own. They will not be able to compete with others," he said.

"If there can be one test for more competitive AIIMS examination, which has fewer seats and more candidates, and IIMs, why can't there be such a similar test for the IITs", Kumar said, adding that the pressure of three tests, especially the JEE advanced that is expected to be tougher, will increase mental stress on children.

Anand also opposed the move to introduce the new system by next year. His Super 30, set up a decade ago, has been lauded by Time magazine as the best in Asia. The institute provides free residential coaching to 30 meritorious students from the underprivileged sections of society and so far 263 students have made it to the IITs.

Maintaining that there was uncertainty still about the mechanism of the proposed two-tier test, a worried parent Sanjiv Malhotra said if JEE-mains and JEE-advanced were held the same day, it would be psychologically draining for the students. "If the student is not able to give the test on the assigned day, he stands to lose one precious year," he said.

156 - Single test for engineering courses from 2013 - News Track India

Single test for engineering courses from 2013 

New Delhi,Education, Mon, 28 May 2012

A meeting of the Joint Councils of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and other central educational institutions approved the conduct of a common admission examination in its meeting Monday.

The meeting was presided over by Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal.


The common national test will remove the multiplicity of entrance examinations that a student intending to pursue a course in engineering has to appear in.


'The burden imposed on students in terms of time, payment of examination fees and the stress caused in scheduling and preparing for each examination is tremendous. We have been working on reforms in the examination system by moving towards a common national test to reduce the burden on the students and at the same time preserving the autonomy of the state governments and institutions in devising its admission process,' an official said.


The official said that another serious problem with the present system is the neglect of the Class XII examination process while admitting students to engineering institutions.


'This has led to the almost complete disregard to the secondary school system and neglect of education imparted in schools, impacting quality and access. Parents and children have been forced to seek access to outside-the-school instruction methods to enable the student to prepare for the multitude of entrance examinations,' he said.


'The proposed reform attempts to bring focus back to the schooling system by giving weightage to performance in Class 12 board examinations normalized on percentile basis. The reform would, in the longer term, have an impact on the quality of secondary education and enable better quality access,' he said.


A Joint Entrance Examination for admission to the undergraduate programmes in engineering would be conducted in two parts, JEE-MAIN and JEE-ADVANCED.

For all other centrally funded institutions, there would be 40 percent weightage for performance in Class XII Board marks, 30 percent weightage for performance in JEE-MAIN and 30 percent weightage in JEE-ADVANCED and a combined merit decided accordingly.


JEE-MAIN tests shall be multiple choice objective type paper whereas the nature and modalities of the JEE-ADVANCED shall be determined by the Joint Admission Board of IITs.


A meeting of state education ministers' is proposed for June 5 where the participation of states in the common national test process would be deliberated upon.

155 - India a step closer to single entrance test for engineering - Live Mint

India a step closer to single entrance test for engineering

Prashant K. Nanda , prashant.n@livemint.com

IIndia moved closer on Monday to putting in place a single entrance test for admission to engineering colleges nationwide.

The move will ease the stress on students, diminish the importance of the entrance test coaching businesses and re-emphasize the importance of class XII board examinations across the country.

After over two years of talks to sort out differences, the human resource development (HRD) ministry, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), and other leading engineering and technology colleges finally struck a compromise on Monday and decided to adopt a common engineering entrance exam beginning 2013.

To be sure, the move will be complete only if all state governments sign onto the deal and bring state-level entrance examinations for engineering institutions under the purview of the common entrance exam. Currently, each state conducts its own entrance examination.

“With complete unanimity, we have now decided to go for the common entrance exam from 2013,” HRD minister Kapil Sibal said after a meeting with the councils of central government-funded technical institutions (CFTIs).

The CFTIs comprise 15 IITs, the Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University, the Indian School of Mines at Dhanbad, 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), five Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), architecture schools and several other leading engineering colleges. At least 1.6 million students sit for several tests for admission to these prestigious schools.

As part of the compromise formula, the selection will be based on three tests—the class XII board exam, the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) main exam and the JEE advanced exam. All the CFTIs, except IITs, will give direct weightage to these three sets of examination in the proportion of 40:30:30, respectively.

For IITs, the class XII board exam and JEE main exam will work as a filter to screen students. The top 50,000 students thus screened will be eligible for admission to IITs; their ranking though will be based on the advanced test that is conducted on the same day as the JEE main.

“Based on this all-India JEE ranking, students will get admission in an IIT,” said Gautam Barua, director of IIT Guwahati.

Sibal said that the ministry accepted the demand of IITs that the board exam marks will not have a direct bearing on the selection process and the JEE advanced exam will be completely administered by IITs with technical help from the Central Board of Secondary Education.

“We have accepted their core demand,” Sibal said, adding that though he wanted the board exam to have a direct impact on selection, he did not force the issue in the face of consistent opposition from IITs. “I did not want to say (it), but this is the truth.”

So, how will this work out? There will be two rankings—one for IITs and one for other CFTIs. “So one may not get into IITs, yet has a chance of getting through CFTIs,” said Sanjay Dhande, director of IIT Kanpur.

While the HRD ministry said in a statement that the nature of the IIT advanced exam will be decided by the Joint Admission Board of IITs, Dhande said IITs may adopt a multiple-choice formula for the advanced exam as well.

“Making the advanced exam subjective will need a lot of resources (to verify the papers). Hence, we may make it objective, much more difficult than what it is today and with many more options than just four to evaluate the student’s knowledge base,” he added.

For starters, IITs face a faculty crunch in the range of 20-30%. At the undergraduate level, 15 IITs admit nearly 7,500 students every year after screening nearly 500,000 aspirants.

Sibal said the move will pave the way for a single entrance exam for all engineering colleges in the country and he would take this up with state education ministers and other stakeholders at a high-level meeting on 5-6 June. “We have information that Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra are going to adopt this national formula and we hope other states will follow after the education ministers’ meet,” he added.

The minister said that the multiplicity of exams that a student intending to pursue a course in engineering has to appear for, has been a cause for concern.

“The burden imposed on the students in terms of time, payment of examination fees and the stress caused...is tremendous,” Sibal said. Under the proposed system, students can’t disregard the class XII school boards any more. “The coaching factories will now feel the impact.”

Bhagwan Dash, a parent in Bhubaneswar, said that the move seems positive, but it was crucial that state governments accept it.

“One may argue about meritorious students going to national-level engineering and technology schools, but it may not be true always,” he said. “Other reasons, including financial constraints at times, force families to send their kids to quality state-level institutes. One test for all engineering exams will be better.”

154 - IIT, other tech colleges to have single entrance - Hindu Businessline

IIT, other tech colleges to have single entrance 

New Delhi, May 28: 

The admission process for centrally-funded engineering colleges is set to get stream-lined with single entrance examination starting from the 2013-14 academic year.

The councils of the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), International Institute of Information Technology (IIITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) have agreed to give equal weightage to Class XII marks and entrance tests results.

The decisions were approved at a meeting presided by the Minister of Human Resource Development, Mr Kapil Sibal, on Monday.

“A serious problem with the present system is the neglect of the Class XII examination process while admitting students to engineering institutions. This has led to the almost complete disregard to the secondary school system and neglect of education imparted in schools impacting quality and access,” a Press Information Bureau (PIB) release said.

Following consultations spanning over two years, the councils have decided to divide the entrance exam into two parts – Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains and JEE-Advanced.

While students would be required to appear for both tests, they would need to clear the cut-off in the JEE-Mains to qualify for having their JEE-Advanced paper evaluated.

The combined marks of Class XII exam (50 per cent) and the JEE-Mains exam would be used by IITs to screen students before the JEE-Advanced papers are assessed.

However, the rankings for admissions would be based solely on the performance at the JEE-Advanced exam.

“The multiplicity of entrance examinations that a student intending to pursue a course in engineering has to appear for has been a cause of concern to society,” the release added.

The State Education Ministers are likely to meet on June 5 to consider whether or not they would like to join the common national test process.

aesha.datta@thehindu.co.in

153 - 50% weightage to XII results for admission in IIT - News Bullet

50% weightage to XII results for admission in IIT  - News Bullet

STAR News Bureau
Monday, 28 May 2012 18:41

New Delhi: Government has proposed a new formula for admission to engineering colleges, including IITs, across the country that seeks to eliminate or at least minimise the influence of private coaching institutes. Instead of basing the entire admission process on one grand Joint Entrance Exam or the JEE, the new system proposes to take into consideration the results of Class XII board exam as well in equal weightage.

According to the proposal, for the entrance to IITs, 50% weightage will be given to Class XII results and rest 50% will be the result of the JEE. On the basis of this, there will be a screening and selected students will then appear for what is being called JEE Advance from which the final selection will be made.

For Non-IIT, Indian Institute of Information technology and the centrally funded engineering colleges, 40% weightage will be for Class XII results, 30% will be for JEE and remaining 30% for Advance JEE. There will be no screening here and on the aggregate of the three, merit list will be formed.

The Union Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibbal has long argued that the flourishing private coaching industry is a senseless conveyer belt type production where students are trained how to pass the JEE and not become good engineers. 


Sibbal feels giving weightage to school education will not only reduce the influence of the coaching institutes, it will also add more seriousness to the school curriculum. The proposal also seeks to help the poor students who can not afford the massive fees charged by the coaching institutes.

The single entrance examination test will be held for admission into central government’s engineering institutes such as IITs, NIT and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) from the next year.

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said, “IIT, NIT and IIIT council decide to have joint entrance test for engineering colleges. IIT had resisted having a joint test with other institutions. This is why a two tier system has been evolved.

Also, the joint council of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) have decided to change the procedure for selecting candidates for engineering colleges from 2013.

The new proposals will be implemented from 2013.

152 - JEE rules changed: Class 12 results to count for first time - First Post India

JEE rules changed: Class 12 results to count for first time

by FP Staff May 28, 2012

The joint council of the Indian Institutes of Technology ( IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) have decided to change the procedure for selecting candidates for engineering colleges from 2013.

Under the proposed new format for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), students will be selected both on the basis of their entrance test as well as their class 12 board examination results.

PTI

The Education Ministry proposes to implement the new format from 2013 onwards, a ranking list will be prepared based on Class XII results and the main test.

For admission to all the centrally funded institutes, there would be 40 percentage weightage for performance in Class XII (after normalisation of marks), 30 percent weightage to performance in main and 30 percent in the advanced test.

In case of IITs, there would be a filtering process involved. The board results and the main test will be given 50 percent weightage each. Only the top 50,000 students will be selected for the advance test after taking into account their
performance in the board results and the main result.

It was also decided, that a single entrance examination test will be held for admission into central government’s engineering institutes such as IITs, NIT and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) from the next year.

But students are not quite happy with the new procedure. In an interview to NDTV, an IIT aspirant said, “This is absolutely wrong. How can you select IIT students on the basis of Board results? The pattern and level of Board exams is entirely different.”

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said, “IIT, NIT and IIIT council decide to have joint entrance test for engineering colleges. IIT had resisted to have a joint test with other institutions. Which is why a two tier system has been evolved.” Ahead of today’s meet between IIT’s and NIT’s in which the decision was taken,  Sibal on Sunday met the IIT faculty federation and is understood to have sought to resolve differences arising out of the government’s move to hold a single entrance test for undergraduate technical courses.

“The merit only in advanced examination will be considered for admission” to the IITs, Sibal said.  At the same time, he added, the IIT council has agreed to move to the other system by 2015

Most of the IIT senates and faculty federation are opposing admission to the undergraduate engineering programmes under the new format which will replace IIT-JEE and AIEEE.

The IIT council had met on 12 May during which it is believed to have insisted that the proposed single entrance test may be used as the screening test for admissions to the undergraduate program.

151 - Single entrance test for IITs? Crucial meeting to decide today - NDTV

Single entrance test for IITs? Crucial meeting to decide today

NDTV Correspondent | Updated: May 28, 2012 11:22 IST

New Delhi: In what could decide the fate of several students aspiring to get into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the government will today hold a crucial meeting to on whether there should be a single entrance test for admission to the prestigious institutions.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal is pushing for a single Joint Entrance Test (JEE) to replace the current IIT-JEE and AIEEE, two of the most established engineering examinations, for gaining entry into undergraduate technical courses at the IITs. The ministry is keen to implement this format from the next academic year in 2013, something that is being firmly opposed by the faculty federation and most of the IIT senates - decision-making bodies that look into the academics of the institutes. 

Hence, the meeting of the joint council of the IITs and the NITs with Mr Sibal today is significant, given the fact that most of the franchises are in favour of retaining the existing format for 2013, saying that the new arrangement can be effected only in 2014.

But the disagreements don't end here. Under the government's proposed new format, a ranking list will be prepared based on Class XII results with 40 per cent weightage to be given after normalisation of marks, 30 per cent to the main test and 30 per cent to the advanced test. The HRD Ministry's stress on school performance is based on the argument that most students don't attach importance to school examinations and only focus on tutorials, which several bright students are not able to afford. The IITs, meanwhile, are insisting that performance in the advanced test should be the only criteria to select and admit candidates to the undergraduate programmes.

The ministry also wants the entrance test to carry objective-type questions, something that the IIT senate disagrees with, favouring the present subjective-questions format.

The IIT Council, which includes the HRD Minister, had met on May 12 during which it is believed to have insisted that the proposed single entrance test may be used as the screening test for admissions to the institutes. It also emerged that the council's views largely over-ruled most of what the IIT senates proposed. 

150 - Scientific approach needed to include board marks in Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test, says govt committee - TOI

Scientific approach needed to include board marks in Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test, says govt committee

Abhishek Choudhari, TNN | May 27, 2012, 01.06AM IST

NAGPUR: The two government-appointed committees set up to look into a common engineering exam have strongly suggested a 'rigorous and scientific approach' for including Std XII board marks in the admission process.

Both the Acharya and Ramasami committees have made their stand clear on an issue which now pretty much threatens the union HRD ministry's plan to give India its first common entrance test.

TOI has accessed both the committee reports and it gives an insight to the road map for the proposed Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test (ISEET).

The HRD ministry first constituted a committee in March 2010 under the chairmanship of D Acharya, director of IIT Kharagpur, and tasked it with finding an alternative to the present examination system into engineering colleges, including the prestigious IITs.

Later in May 2011, another committee was formed under the chairmanship of T Ramasami, secretary in the department of Science and Technology. The second committee's task (which included former chairman Acharya) was to work out a realistic method of holding the ISEET in a country where there are multiple boards and similar methods of evaluation.

While setting up the committees, the government had made it clear that the board exam marks should be 'given due weightage' thus leaving aptitude to be the main focus area for the ISEET. An HRD ministry letter dated March 8, 2010 which announced the formation of the Acharya committee emphasized that the new CET should 'constitute of an aptitude test which gauges the raw intelligence of students and lays less emphasis on physics, chemistry and mathematics as these are already tested at the board level'.

The Acharya committee recommended that before the inclusion of board marks there should be a common syllabus across the country. In its interim report, the Acharya committee says 'the board examination results could be brought to a meaningful common base if all boards use the same question paper for examination and common model answer for evaluation'. In their consultations with the Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE) the committee was informed that 'most of the boards will implement the common curriculum and syllabus in physics, chemistry, mathematics and bioscience by 2012'.

It further added that board results across the country should be released by May 1 to facilitate a smooth coordination for the ISEET, along with every student using the Unique Identification Scheme.

Later, when the Ramasami committee submitted its report to the government in September 2011, the ISEET had taken a more definitive shape. The committee said that a rigorous and scientific approach has to be taken if board marks are to be included.

This 'scientific approach' job was then given to the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) which studied results of ICSE, CBSE, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu boards. 

The ISI worked out a mathematical formula which is aimed at 'normalization' of board marks before its inclusion in the admission process.

It is this formula which is not finding favour with the IITs. A source in one of the older IITs said, "It is impossible to equate scores of CBSE to that of Bihar board. 

It is just not the curriculum but also the evaluation methods that are being used at these places." The HRD ministry officials however are convinced that the IITs are not favouring the idea of inclusion of board marks itself.

Many meetings have been held between all stakeholders but no common ground has been reached. Now everyone, including HRD minister Kapil Sibal, will assemble for a major meeting in the capital on Monday where a final decision on the ISEET is to be taken.

149 - Who said IIT aspirants take boards lightly? - DNA

Published: Saturday, May 26, 2012, 8:00 IST 

By Pallavi Smart | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

Devdeep Ray, who stood third in Maharashtra state with an all-India rank of 13 in the IIT-JEE results, scored 95.4% in Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Examination.

Pratik Fegade, who came 4th in the state with all-India rank of 16 in IIT-JEE, scored 94% in the HSC.

IIT aspirants have come out with flying colours, proving those wrong who think that they do not give importance to board examination.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development’s (MHRD) plan of introducing 40% weightage to board marks for entry into IIT hinged on the reason that students ignore board examination while preparing for entrance tests.

Many IIT-JEE (Indian Institute of Technology – Joint Entrance Examination) rankers were seen among the HSC high scorers.

The MHRD’s decision has met with opposition in the circle of IITs. It has proposed replacing the multiple entrance tests conducted by states, private engineering schools, and the IIT-JEE and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) with a single test across the country.

The single test is aimed at reducing the stress of taking multiple tests for students just out of Class 12, reducing dependency on coaching institutes which promote learning by rote, and reinforcing the importance of school education.

“It is a wrong notion that students preparing for competitive examinations totally ignore the board examination. We have proofs now of students who have done well in board examination while preparing for the IITJEE and other competitive entrance examinations for engineering courses,” said Praveen Tyagi, managing director of the IITian’s PACE, a coaching class for IITJEE preparation.

An IIT-B professor said that students aspiring for admission to IITs are generally those who have been performing well consistently in schools. “So they are not likely to ignore school studies for ministry to make them understand the importance of board examination,” he said.

148 - IITs pitch for subjective JEE to improve student quality - Live Mint

Posted: Wed, May 23 2012. 1:00 AM IST

IITs pitch for subjective JEE to improve student quality

Prashant K. Nanda, prashant.n@livemint.com

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are planning to switch to a subjective question-based test from the current multiple-choice-based joint entrance examination (JEE) after criticism over the deteriorating quality of students.

The new test will seek to evaluate the knowledge and analytical ability of aspiring students. Critics of the current format, which comprises two multiple-choice papers, include Infosys Ltd chairman emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy and other executives and alumni.

The move is also being seen by some academicians as a compromise between the government and the IITs over a common entrance exam for all engineering schools. The government wants to conduct a nationwide objective-type selection test for millions of students aspiring for such colleges, including the IITs.

The IITs themselves now favour a two-tier selection process, where the top rank holders in the objective test will be eligible to appear for a final subjective question-based evaluation.

The human resource development (HRD) ministry has been informed about the proposal to change the selection process by the senates of at least the five older IITs. The senate is the highest decision-making body at an IIT and comprises senior professors, the director and some outside experts, including former students and executives.

“Selecting students through an objective test is not the best way to get quality students for institutes like IITs,” said Sanjeev Sanghi, president of the IIT Delhi faculty forum. “We need to go back to the subjective format.”

Murthy said at an IIT alumni meet in New York in October last year that JEE coaching centres had led to the deteriorating quality of students entering the colleges. “But their performance in IITs, at jobs or when they come for higher education in institutes in the US is not as good as it used to be,” he said. “This has to be corrected. A new method of selection of students to IITs has to be arrived at.”

While the top 20% of IITians can “stand among the best anywhere in the world”, the quality of the remaining 80% wasn’t as sound, Murthy had said.

Pramod Maheshwari, chief executive of Career Point, an education company that prepares students for the JEE examination, said it wasn’t fair to blame the coaching institutes.

“They should ask why students go for coaching in the first place,” said Maheshwari, himself an IIT alumnus. “The quality of questions when we gave JEE (in 1989) was much tougher than what it is today.”

But Maheshwari said the suggested change would be a good move. “If you make the entrance subjective, it will help for sure,” he said.

On the other hand, Maheshwari suggests that blaming the coaching centres is to ignore other ills in the system. “The standard of many IIT faculties is not very good and they need to do self-audit without blaming coaching centres, who have no say on the entrance,” he said.

The IITs insist though that changing the entrance format will have a significant impact on student quality.

The decline in quality is linked to the switch in the format to objective-type questions in 2005-06, said a senior IIT Bombay professor who didn’t want to be named. Coaching centres’ methods are geared towards helping students spot the right answer out of multiple choices, allowing the undeserving to do better than more gifted aspirants with higher powers of understanding, he added.

The IITs seem to regard the coaching centres with some amount of distrust, even going to the extent of scrapping the JEE centre at Kota, Rajasthan, although it isn’t clear why exactly this had been done. The town is reputed as a hub for coaching centres.

In the new format being proposed by the IITs, the top 50,000 performers will be culled from the applicants that sit in the initial multiple-choice test. Those selected will be subjected to an in-depth, three-paper evaluation, according to IIT professors who declined to be named.

“Mathematics, chemistry and physics need to be tested in three different papers, maybe over two days. Papers will be checked manually by senior professors of the older IITs to create the rankings,” said an IIT Delhi professor. A senior IIT Kanpur professor confirmed this. Both declined to be named.

The JEE is currently the common admission test for the 15 IITs, the Indian School of Mines at Dhanbad and the Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University, which jointly admit at least 9,600 students every year. This year, 480,000 appeared for the JEE.

An IIT Bombay senate member expressed resistance to the HRD ministry’s proposal for a common entrance examination for all engineering schools starting next year. “We want a thorough trial in 2013 and then go for it in 2014. (But) the common entrance (exam) should not be the sole basis for the IIT selection process,” he said.

Himangshu R. Vaish, a former president of the IIT Delhi Alumni Association and managing director of Instapower Ltd, told Mint last month that it would be preferable to have a subjective JEE exam. The ministry’s common entrance may affect the IIT brand, he said.

The IIT council and the ministry plan to hold a meeting on the issue on 28 May, said M. Anandakrishnan, chairman of IIT Kanpur. “We will resolve all issues on that day,” he said.

147 - Liberalise Education - India Today

Liberalise Education

G. Viswanathan  May 18, 2012 | UPDATED 19:07 IST

Founder and Chancellor of VIT University G. Viswanathan.

Education should be kept away from politics. Wherever you have more regulations, you will also have more corruption. That is why private universities were propagated in the first place; to build an environment away from the trifling matters faced in public colleges.

But the little autonomy private universities enjoyed is gradually being eroded. The set of New Regulations introduced by UGC in 2010 is a perfect example of this. Five years ago, private universities petitioned the Government to receive the status of 'university' instead of 'deemed university'. No other country recognises the term 'deemed university' and it led to unnecessary misconceptions when applying for funds or collaborations. Arjun Singh, the then human resource development minister, set up the Tandon Committee to look into this. The committee recommended that private universities should be allowed to use the label of 'university' while mentioning that the status was granted under Section 3 of the UGC Act. 

UGC's New Regulations now state the label will revert to 'deemed university'. It also states that the chairman of the university trust cannot be a chancellor. It abolishes the post of prochancellor and for every new board member appointed or course added, it says permission needs to be taken from UGC. Education reforms and bills are usually about decreasing control; in India, it seems to work the other way around.

When Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) started in 1984, we aimed to be the best engineering university in terms of flexibility of courses, diversity of academic disciplines and quality of faculty. One of our first innovative ideas was to introduce a course called MA in Computer-aided Design (CAD) and Computer-aided Manufacturing (CAM). At that time, we were under University of Madras. When we sought approval for the course, the university recommended we call it MA in CAD and drop CAM. Then AICTE stepped in and asked us to call it MA in Mechanical Engineering instead. We waited almost six months for approval on just the name. Tell me then, why would any institution be motivated to enhance the quality of education?

If this country wants private universities, then we need to remove the stumbling blocks. In the US, private universities get free land and they are allowed to sell part of it to raise funds. In India, the Government gives over Rs.500 crore a year to IITs but no reward is given to private institutions. An educational institute that has succeeded in providing wholesome education should be rewarded. Only then will private universities be driven to enhance their overall quality. Private universities are needed. Not every student is lucky enough to get past the intense competition faced at top government institutes. What options do these students have then? Or what about field scholars who don't wish to be perturbed by policy hurdles each time they apply for funding? Private universities are the answer. This country needs to motivate, not hinder, the growth of these institutions. It's time that education was liberalised in India, just like industry and business.

- The writer is founder and chancellor of VIT University

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/india-today-universities-rankings-2012-g-viswanathan/1/189313.html

146 - An opportunity lost Atta-ur-Rahman

An opportunity lost

Atta-ur-Rahman

Saturday, May 19, 2012

The single most important discipline that impacts the growth of national self-reliance is engineering. Expertise in engineering leads to a country to develop key products and processes that include special alloys, engineering goods, industrial machinery, automobiles, electronics, household appliances, computers, polymers, and even novel textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. It is for this reason that while developing basic and applied sciences as well as social sciences in a well-rounded fashion, I decided to give special emphasis to the engineering sector when I was the federal minister of science & technology and later the chairman of the Higher Education Commission.

India decided to strengthen its engineering sector back in the 1950s under the visionary policies of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and as a result seven world class Indian institutes of technology were established over the last several decades. This emphasis on strengthening education in general, and engineering universities in particular has resulted in the emergence of a strong middle class in India that accounts for about 32 percent of its population and is growing at a pace of about 1 percent per year. It has also impacted the rapid development of the mega industries (steel, automobiles, software etc.) in India as it has the critical mass of highly qualified manpower that is able to serve as the engine of growth.

Recently India has decided to make massive investments in higher education. Indian HRD Minister Kapil Sibal recently announced that India will invest Rs80,000 crores in the next five year plan (till 2017) in higher education. These funds will be used for increasing the number of IITs from the present seven to sixteen, and setting up 200 new universities and 40 centres of excellence. This will allow India to increase its access to higher education from 17 percent of youth aged between 17-23 to over 30 percent. In Pakistan we increased this access from 2.6 percent to 7.6 percent during 2003-2010 but we are now sliding backwards.

India will also replace its University Grants Commission by a much more powerful body to be called the National Commission for Higher Education and Research. This was decided recently by the Indian cabinet. Realising the importance of engineering education and research in the year 2000 we decided to strengthen the existing engineering universities by creating significant endowments of Rs100-200 million for every engineering university in order to promote research. Later when I became chairman HEC about 5,000 PhD level scholarships were awarded to the brightest students of Pakistan after a competitive national test, over 2,000 of which were in the fields of engineering and computer sciences. The efforts to strengthen engineering led to dramatic progress in Pakistan with several of our universities being ranked in the top 300, 400 and 500 of the world.

However, the most important step to strengthen engineering education and research in Pakistan was to establish a network of several world class foreign engineering universities. The model chosen was a very visionary one by all accounts. The students in Pakistan would have been enrolled into courses offered by the top engineering universities in Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Austria, China and other countries. Students would have studied exactly the same curriculum as offered by the foreign universities, they would have been taught by highly qualified foreign faculty and they would have received degrees from reputable foreign universities without ever going abroad. This would have brought world class engineering education at a very affordable cost to Pakistani students and created the needed momentum for our engineering industry to start massive investments in engineering industries.

At present Pakistani parents spend about Rs100 billion annually in sending their children abroad for studies. Much of this money would have been saved. The model involved partnership with consortia of top universities (rather than with any single foreign university) so that quality faculty could become available in sufficient numbers. Thus nine top German engineering universities formed a strong consortium to establish a world class engineering university in Lahore. Similar consortia were formed by Italy, Austria and China. Lands for all the universities were generously provided by the provincial governments and the PM of Pakistan laid the foundation stone of the Pakistan-French University. Classes of the German, Austrian, Italian and Chinese were planned to commence in October 2008.

The new technical universities were based on the novel concept that education and employment are strongly and permanently linked and that it was important to ensure this. Each university would therefore have had a technology park within its premises. The university/technology park complex was envisaged to produce qualified and trained engineers who would have serviced local industry, carried out R&D work, become entrepreneurs and, most importantly, brought inward investment into Pakistan because highly trained manpower would have been available to foreign investors.

The high tech R & D centres in technology parks would have focused on developing commercially viable products or services, developing prototypes and undertaking small scale production in order to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the products of services realised in the R & D centres. In cases where further development into a large-scale business was justified, a separate business enterprise would have been established on an industrial or commercial site outside the tech park. The tech park was to encourage start-ups operating in specially designed incubator units. Entrepreneurs within the university in all categories, students, faculty and technicians were to be encouraged to develop worthwhile ideas, inventions and know-how into commercial products and services. Start-up companies would have been encouraged to apply for venture funds from a central fund operated by the owners of the tech parks and given help with the preparation of business plans and company operation and management methods.

The projects for four of these university in collaboration with Germany, Italy, Austria and China were approved by ECNEC in February 2008 at a cost of about Rs160 billion over a 10 year period. The projects were approved by ECNEC in February 2008 and were again presented to the present prime minister on May 12, 2008. The prime minister had approved the implementation of this programme. Then disaster struck. On May 19, 2008, just three months after ECNEC had granted approval for the projects, the cabinet froze the programme and decided to form a four member committee. The programme was strongly supported by the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi at various cabinet meetings and later by the new Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at the cabinet meeting held in Lahore. However all this was to no avail. The foreign countries with whom the negotiations had been carried out over several years for the establishment of these universities just could not believe what had happened. Pakistan had lost all credibility as a nation in their eyes.

In Pakistan we have strangled education to serve the interests of the ruling feudal classes and we are today in the shameful position of being ranked among the bottom seven countries of the world in terms of expenditure on education, that is a lowly 1.8 percent of the GDP. This is a national tragedy for a nuclear power.

A wonderful opportunity to bring world class engineering education to Pakistan has been lost.

The writer is former federal minister for science & technology and former chairman of the Higher Education Commission. Email: ibne_sina@hotmail.com

145 - Clearing JEE will not guarantee entry into IIT-Hindustan Times

Clearing JEE will not guarantee entry into IIT

Chetan Chauhan

New Delhi, May 17, 2012

More students will be eligible for admission in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in 2012, but this does not necessarily mean a guarantee of entry into the country’s premier institutions.

The IIT-Delhi will announce the results of IIT-JEE 2012 on Friday, and more than 25,000 students are expected to be eligible for admission in the premier institutes, nearly double of the number in 2011 (13, 600).

This is because the IITs have decided to lower the cut-off marks for general students to 35%, compared to 47.7% in 2011. In addition to the aggregate, the students are required to score minimum marks in physics, maths and chemistry to be eligible for the all-India rank.

GB Reddy, chairman of JEE 2012, explained the aggregates were announced well in advance to help students prepare for the examination. “The aggregate is the bottom-line of the rank,” he told HT, refusing to disclose the number of students who will make it to all-India rank. 

Having more students on the eligibility list will enable IITs to call more students for counselling. While two students will be called for each general category seat, it will be up to three in the case of reserved seats.

Even HRD minister Kapil Sibal had stressed on making admissions to premier institutions — IITs and IIMs — more inclusive. According to an official, a bigger basket of students will help the institutes widen their scope of absorption without compromising on quality.

However, the higher number of eligible students is not a reason for cheer. “The number of seats in IITs will be the same. So, the number of students to be called will be same as last year,” said IIT Kharagpur professor Rajiv Kumar, whose PIL in the SC had pushed the IITs to open up. Only short-listed candidates, who pay the initial admission fee of R40,000 (for general category) and R20,000 (for OBCs), are eligible for counselling.

Once the counselling process is over, the student has to take the course offered or forfeit the admission fee, resulting in seats at “not-so-preferred IIT courses” to remain vacant. “There is no option to withdraw,” Kumar said, suggesting that IITs should provide an option of refund like other technical institutes.Clearing JEE will not guarantee entry into IIT

Lower cut-offs mean more eligible students, but aggregate holds key to all-India rank and admission.

Chetan Chauhan
chetan@hindustantimes.com

144 - Most IITs reject weightage to school exams - Tribune

COMMON ENGINEERING TEST Most IITs reject weightage to school exams Aditi Tandon/TNS New Delhi, May 16 The government’s proposed common engineering test 2013 for admission of students to centrally funded technical institutes has hit a virtual roadblock, with faculties of premier IITs rejecting it in its present form. The senates (faculty bodies) of six out of seven old Indian Institutes of Technology have put their foot down so far as treating the proposed exam as an admission test to premier institutes is concerned. In their representation to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Senates of all IITs - Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Delhi and Roorkee (with the exception of Guwahati) have categorically said school board exam performance "will not to be used for the preparation of the final merit list in respect of admission to IITs and IITs will prepare this final list on the basis of an IIT advanced test." A majority of the professors in the IIT system have resolved that the current practice of admissions to the undergraduate program to the IITs (through IIT-JEE) should continue unchanged for 2013 and the national screening test should be held only from 2014. IIT faculty has however red-flagged a key element of the proposed common national exam - admission of students to central technical institutes including IITs on the basis of this test whose merit list would be prepared after factoring in the school board marks and results of an objective type aptitude test. IIT teachers say they would select the top students from the national screening and subject them to an IIT advanced subjective type test to prepare their final merit list for admission to the premier institutes (eight new ones have been added in the recent past). In their statement to Sibal, the senates have said, "From 2014 onwards, the national entrance test be used as a screening test for the purpose of admissions to undergraduate programmes to IITs. From the national screening test, a fixed number of candidates (about 50,000) will be chosen who will become eligible to appear in the advanced test to be conducted by the IITs." This practically puts IITs out of the purview of the test. IITs say the merit list of advanced test would not factor in board exam marks and structure would be prepared in due course.

143 - Getting into BITS tougher than IITs - 68 Vying For Each Seat, 54 In IITs - TestFunda

Getting into BITS tougher than IITs - 68 Vying For Each Seat, 54 In IITs TestFunda ,  10-May-12

Cracking the IITJEE may be the top priority for most students, but the BITSAT is now the most competitive of all national engineering entrance exams in the country. An average of 68 students will compete for a seat in this year’s BITSAT, the online test for admission into degree courses at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, which starts on May 10. In comparison, only 54 students contested for a seat at the IIT-JEE 2012. Based on the number of applications received, 1.36 lakh students are expected to take the BITSAT-2012 for admission to a total of 2,000 seats at the institute’s campuses in Pilani, Hyderabad and Goa. The exam will be conducted in 32 centres across the country between May 10 and June 9, 2012. On the other hand, 5.2 lakh students took the IIT-JEE 2012 on April 8 to be eligible for 9,600 seats in the 15 Indian Institutes of Technology, the Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. The VITEEE, which was conducted on April 21 for admission into deemed university Vellore Institute of Technology, follows the IITs with 48 students competing for one seat.  Next comes the All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) for admission into approximately 35,000 seats in the 31 National Institutes of Technology. On an average, 31 students compete for one seat with the AIEEE score.  The AIEEE is followed by some more private and deemed universities such as Manipal and SRM which have grown in popularity over the past few years .  Educationists say it is the increase in intake at IITs that has lowered its students per seat ratio, putting it behind BITS Pilani. In 2008, six new IITs were established and several courses added, which took the total number of seats from approximately 5,500 to 7,000. Two more IITs were added in 2009 and the number of seats is currently 9,600. In comparison, seats at BITS have remained constant at 2,000, making it more competitive.  ‘HRD must fill infra gaps at IITs, IISERs’  New Delhi: The new IITs and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISERs) have been hit by an acute shortage of faculty and are still functioning from temporary campuses. A House panel report has asked the HRD ministry to ensure that these gaps are met so that the premium institutes can function more effectively.

142 - ISEET fails to meet the test - DNA

ISEET fails to meet the test Published: Monday, May 14, 2012, 9:00 IST  By Pallavi Smart | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA If things go as planned by the ministry of human resource development (MHRD), around this time next year, all engineering college aspirants in the country will be at daggers drawn over who really make the cut. The ministry is planning to replace all examinations for admission to engineering and technical colleges in the country, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), with a single examination — the Indian science engineering eligibility test (ISEET). The MHRD, which has been working on the common entrance test’s format for over a year now, has acted with the best of motives in mind: to cut down the stress that students right out of Class XII find themselves in while taking multiple tests, to reduce the dependency on coaching institutes which promote learning by rote and to reinforce the importance of a school education. So far, so good. Picking holes The move, though, hasn’t cut much ice with most students and faculty from the IITs. Not only do they resent the scrapping of their exclusive examination for admission — the joint entrance examination (JEE) — but also the 40% weightage given to board examinations in the proposed ISEET rankings. They have even questioned how a single-door entry will help reduce stress among students, given that the ISEET will be a hit-or-miss option for most of them in the absence of the IIT-JEE, the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and various state common entrance tests (CETs). “What if something goes wrong on that one day?” asks Manav Avlani, a Class XII student who sat the JEE, the AIEEE and the Maharashtra CET this year. An IIT-Bombay (IIT-B) professor agrees. “As of now, students have options. If they do not perform well in one examination, they can get admission through another.” A senate member from the institute says more than 10 lakh candidates sit the AIEEE as compared to the 5-6 lakh who turn up for the JEE. “This shows that there are many students who are keen on doing an engineering course, but are not necessarily interested in joining the IITs.” Stepping on toes Another concern being bandied about is whether the move will dilute the academic standards of internationally acclaimed institutes such as the IITs and the NITs. The IIT faculty from different campuses has shot down at several council and senate meetings the criterion of giving 40% weightage to board examination marks for ISEET rankings. An IIT-B senate member explains why these institutes have been fighting the MHRD’s proposal tooth and nail. “Given the ambiguous and vague patterns of different boards, as well as continuous malpractices, the 40% weightage is too high. Till now, board examination marks have been used only as an eligibility criterion to sit the JEE. This cut-off can be increased, but using this score to rank candidates after the test is unfair.” Another member points at the mismatch between the patterns of board examinations and competitive tests. “Different boards have their own examination and evaluation patterns. Also, since board examinations are mostly theory-based, rote learning is encouraged. This doesn’t work with competitive tests, which are application-based.” Will real toppers please stand up? IIT students worry that the 40% weightage in ranking will blur the line between top and mediocre performers of the ISEET. Ketav Mehta, an IIT-B student, says, “Even if we forget the normalisation process for board examination marks for a while, the academic standards will definitely be diluted.” Another student from the institute, Niwedan S, argues that normalisation of board examination marks will be an “impossible task” and that it will add to the confusion. A survey conducted by the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, reportedly confirms this. Shoddy homework Avlani claims that the government, in an attempt to raise the bar of the admission process, has missed the woods for the trees. “It says it is putting the entrance examinations on a par with international ones by ushering in reforms based on the SAT — a standardised test for college admissions in the US. But, a SAT score helps in the first filtering process. Later, individual institutes are allowed separate criteria for admissions. The government has missed this fine print of the SAT.” Coaching centres to get a leg-up Several students and coaching centres argue that the government’s claim of giving the boot to coaching centres falls flat since the 60% weightage to the aptitude test will force aspirants who are used to the school curriculum to line up for special training. “The test will be based on a completely different curriculum. Students will need specialised coaching for it. This means that coaching centres will continue to flourish,” explains Niwedan. A furious Praveen Tyagi, the director of the IIT’s JEE coaching classes — the IIT-ian’s PACE, asks why the government has been shying away from privatisation of the education system when it has allowed the same in the health and food industry to raise quality. “If a qualified person is willing to teach students, who are willing to pay for the training, why is it considered a crime?” Lokesh Khandelwal, director of Resonance, another coaching class for the IIT-JEE, is cautious in judging the MHRD’s initiative. “A single test might be a good move. But, its aim should not be reducing the importance of coaching classes. Such centres provide quality education and training. At the same time, a candidate aspiring to break into the IITs or the NITs should not be judged on the board examination marks.” What’s with the hurry? Several stakeholders question the rush in putting in place a single entrance test, which was proposed only last year. An IIT-B professor says, “Whatever be the decision, what is the need to hurry the (ISEET’s) implementation? Students should get some time to understand the pattern and prepare accordingly.” The PanIIT Alumni Group, in its letter to the MHRD, had suggested that a notice of two years be given before the ISEET is implemented. “This will only be fair to those aspirants who have already begun their preparations on the basis of the existing criteria.” Hari Padmanabhan, chairman of the PanIIT Alumni Group who is a 1975 IIT-Kanpur passout, suggests a two-staged test as a solution. “At the first level, all candidates will be assessed together by a common entrance test. But the admission to an IIT should be given only through IIT-JEE, which IITs should be allowed to conduct in an autonomous manner."

141 - IIT Council to discuss common engineering entrance exam - Financial Express

IIT Council to discuss common engineering entrance exam

KIRITIKA SUNEJA

Posted: Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 0212 hrs IST

New Delhi: With the government planning to scrap the 50-year-old IIT-JEE exam, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Council will have a crucial meeting on Saturday to decide the fate of the exam and find an alternative. The meeting is also a build-up to the country’s highest education advisory body, Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), which is set to meet next month.

The meeting assumes significance as the ministry of human resource development’s (MHRD) proposal of a common national entrance exam for students aspiring to join central engineering institutions has been in-principle approved by states. If implemented, the exam will reduce the burden of multiplicity of exams on students.

The aptitude-cum-advanced knowledge test will be in place in 2013 once the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) are merged.

“ We are yet to discuss the issue and the decision will happen after a consensus,” said an IIT director who is coming to attend the meeting in Delhi. Incidentally, the IITs and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are opposing the scrapping of the JEE on grounds of dilution of quality. Also, the CABE committee meeting has been postponed by almost a month as the government and stakeholders could not find common ground for the national level exam.

While the IITs and other central educational institutions are proposing to adopt a weightage of 40% for state board marks, test scores will have 60% weightage.

However, states can adopt their own weightages for state board marks and the national examinations for admission to state-level institutions. The academic component of the main and advanced examinations would be handled by IITs whereas the management and conduct of the examination would be done by CBSE in collaboration with state boards.

140 - Summary of Majority Views of IIT Senates

Current Practice to Continue in 2013

Not Clear 14%
No 14%

Yes 72%

Board Performance to be Added in Final JEE Ranking of IITs

Yes 14%

Not Clear 0%
No 86%

National Common Exam as a Screening Test from 2014

No 14%

Not Clear 0%
Yes 86%

IITs to Conduct its own Test to Select Candidates Using the Screened List from the National Test

No 14%

Not Clear 0%
Yes 86%

From the comparison and consolidation of the views of the various Senates, the following majority views clearly emerge and should therefore be accepted:

1. The current practice of admissions to the undergraduate program to the IITs to continue unchanged for the year 2013.
   
2. From 2014 onwards, the National entrance test is to be used as the Screening test for the purpose of admissions to the undergraduate program to the IITs. From the National entrance test, a fixed number of candidates (about 50,000) will be chosen who will become eligible to appear in the advanced test to be conducted by the IITs.
   
3. IITs will conduct the advanced tests for the above Screened candidates. Only the performance in this advanced test will be used to select and admit candidates to the IITs undergraduate programs.
   
4. The details of the IITs advanced test will be finalized in due course of time by discussion amongst the IITs, so that it can be implemented from the year 2014.
   
5. The board performance is NOT to be used for the preparation of the final merit list, which will be based on only the IIT advanced test.
   
6. There is no clear majority view emerging with respect to the issue: whether to use board marks as cut-off or as part of the initial Screening process. IITs would like to carry out detailed analyze of the board data in this respect.