One JEE will not improve matters
P.V.INDIRESAN
Nowhere in the world are admissions carried out purely through a
mechanical test.
The new norms for engineering entrance exams cannot address the
rich-poor, or rural-urban divide. There are better ways of dealing with
these problems.
June 1, 2012:
The Human Resources Development Ministry has announced its latest
regulations for admissions to engineering colleges. Mr Ashok Kumar, the
police officer-activist who trained 33 rural youths and managed to get
30 of them through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for the Indian
Institutes of Technology (IITs), has been so incensed that he has
organised a big demonstration in Patna against the decision. Some alumni
may even go to court.
The new regulations have tackled reasonably well two of the three
objectives. One, it gives due importance to high-school examination.
Two, it reduces the burden on the students by having one common
examination for all Central Government institutions. However, it is not
likely to do much for the third objective of curbing the influence of
coaching institutions.
Even in the first two cases, there are issues. For instance, many years
ago, the IITs admitted the top 10 from each school board directly
without any entrance test.
That was a disaster; the system had to be stopped because influential
persons got false certificates for their wards.
What guarantee is there that something similar will not happen in the
certificate for percentile scores? However, corruption now may be less
because the candidates have to take the entrance test, too.
A single test is a good idea, but it has its own problems. What will
happen if a paper is leaked in some obscure corner of the country? Will
or should the tests in thousands of centres round the country be
scrapped and re-held? In any case, how will the Government keep the
question papers secret everywhere without fail?
These are real issues to
which the Government seems to have given little thought.
I do not think anyone will lay a claim that the influence of coaching
centres will diminish. At present, coaching costs are heavier than the
four-year tuition charges in the IITs. Yet, they will probably increase
to coach students for the plus-two examinations, too. Hence, only the
well-to-do will get that benefit. Then, will not the rich-poor divide
increase? Mr Kumar is worried that the new programme will impose a
heavier burden on rural children. As it is, rural schools are poorly
off; they are worse than the schools in the cities and far worse off
than the good ones. Frankly, the Government has not thought of the
rural-urban divide at all. Our present-day politicians are enamoured of
quotas. Who knows, we will have a new quota for rural schools, too.
Deficient filter
The biggest question of all is whether the new system will identify and
admit students of the best calibre. It probably will not. As matters
stand, admission to the IITs is a gamble — a chance of one in a hundred
or so. In comparison, great universities such as Harvard and Stanford
get only 10 applications for each student admitted. So long as the
application-admission ratio remains as high as it is in India, no
programme will be truly rational.
Further, nowhere in the world are admissions made purely through a
mechanical test. For instance, SAT scores are used as a guide by
American universities; they do not determine admissions entirely. Our
country is so obsessed with objectivity that it forgets that we produced
better scientists and engineers before Independence, too, when there
were no entrance tests at all and teachers took who they liked.
Unfortunately, the present government has no such faith.
Why we lag
Nobody has asked the crucial question: why have MIT, Stanford, Oxford
and all the great universities of the West done better, and are still
doing better than our own institutions and do so in spite of admitting
less-qualified rich students? The basic reason: those universities have
the autonomy to admit whoever they like, including children of the very
rich; our institutions have no autonomy and are shackled by the State.
Years ago, the IITs were concerned about the varying standards of
high-school boards; they were worried by political interference. That is
how they devised the JEE. Unfortunately, they forgot they were giving
up a precious privilege — the autonomy to select their own students.
Even now, according to the statutes, only the individual IITs can decide
on admission policy — not the government. The Minister, being an able
lawyer, may be able to get round, if, for instance, as is possible, IIT
Kanpur refuses to accept his rules. But let us remember that the IIT
statutes are good; that is why they have performed better than the
universities have.
Two solutions
What is the ideal that will ensure the autonomy of not only the IITs but
also of all other institutions, and at the same time minimise
rural-urban and rich-poor divides? I suggest that each district gets a
quota — for shortlisting the applicants — that depends on its
population; the districts will conduct independent tests to fulfil their
quota. That way the rural-urban divide will be minimised.
Alternatively, each IIT may shortlist four or five times the number of
students it is entitled to admit after they pass class 10 and provide
the selected students scholarships to study in the best schools for the
next two years. That way, the influence of coaching centres too will
diminish, reducing further the rich-poor divide.
Only through interviews will the teachers know whether the applicant is a
‘muggo,' or whether he understands the subject. Undoubtedly, the
faculty will be under enormous pressure from politically powerful
persons to admit their nominees. That may be resolved in one of the two
ways: IITs admit some of them, the way Western universities do, but on
payment of very high fees, or stick to their guns.
I think the first proposition is better. If a rich or influential
person's ward can be admitted to Harvard, no disaster will ensue if they
are admitted to an IIT.
(The author is a former Director, IIT Madras. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in and
indiresan@gmail.com)
This is 330th in the Vision 2020 series. The last article appeared on
May 19.
