IITs not for social engineering
The IITs have won recognition through one of the most ruthlessly
competitive selection systems. Fairness or unfairness has nothing to do
with it.
June 13, 2012:
Imagine the furore if the Indian cricket team was to be picked on the
basis of who can run 400 m the fastest!
An ability to sprint fast is undoubtedly required to play any
competitive field sport, but that alone, as anyone with even nodding
familiarity with the game will tell you, is not enough to turn one into a
cricketer.
Yet, the Union Human Resources Development Minister, Mr Kapil Sibal's
bullying persistence in ramming through his pet ‘single entrance test'
plan for all engineering and science courses in the country —including
those offered by the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) — is
based on just such quixotic reasoning.
For a self-declared democrat and someone who is dependent on winning
elections in order to hold the office which gives him the power to take
such decisions — which necessarily implies at least a modicum of people
skills —
Mr Sibal has shown a remarkable ability to not listen to the
public.
He has turned a blind eye to the logic advanced by those opposing the
move and simply shut out the chorus of voices raised in opposition from
stakeholders one would have thought had an equal, if not greater say in
such a decision — the students themselves, their parents, the IIT
faculty, the worthies who administer them, distinguished alumni and even
industry, which ultimately employs the output of the IITs.
Still multiple tests
On the face of it, the plan ticks all the right emotional boxes. Mr
Sibal says the move is aimed at reducing the burden of multiple entrance
tests on the student, something which no one has any quarrel with. Then
come the twists in the tale.
The test will be one, but 50 per cent weight will be given to the 12th
standard examinations. Which means that we already have multiple exams,
not one.
Then there will be a second test — an ‘advanced' one — for
entry into the IITs itself. Presumably, there might be similar advanced
tests for those wanting to do science, say. So we have a multiplicity of
tests.
There will be quite another test for those wanting to do medicine, for
example, and yet another ‘advanced' test for those wanting to do
medicine in the IIT-equivalent medical institutes such as AIIMS or the
PGMER in Chandigarh (since Mr Sibal's writ does not run in the Health
Ministry, which administers the medical tests). There is yet another
test for those wanting to do law, and so on.
It is not inconceivable that the same student might want to take a shot
at all three. At 17 or 18 — the age when students complete their 12th
standard — they are still largely unformed buds, with their true
potential yet to be explored, leave alone exploited. And given the
reality of the lack of quality higher education opportunities in the
country, vis-Ã -vis the quantity of students aspiring for such education,
wanting to have chance at one or the other is but natural. So, one exam
for engineering is not going to reduce the burden by much.
The real agenda, it appears, is to cloak the degraded and devalued state
education board scores with the legitimacy of academic excellence
furnished by the IITs. This is akin to killing the goose that lays the
golden egg.
The IITs are in a position to be exploited for such purposes precisely
because they have managed to sustain an island of excellence amid an
ocean of mediocrity.
School-leaving exams
This is not to say that the current system of selecting candidates for
IITs is perfect. Far from it. There have been growing murmurs from the
IIT faculty itself about the quality of students filtering through the
system. A thriving industry has sprung up in coaching and training
aspirants to crack the IIT entrance. So you have a growing number of
students who have managed to score outstandingly in the entrance exam —
by simply familiarising themselves with the pattern of questions — and
yet flounder in actual coursework.
There is also considerable ground for questioning the existing board
level examination system in the 12{+t}{+h} standard. They have become
mere tests of rote learning and memory power, prone to manipulation,
illogical marking and political and other interference.
But two wrongs cannot be made into a right by steamrolling a new exam.
Mr Sibal's dream is to have a system of collegiate education similar to
the US. But the solution is not to introduce a SAT analogue in India and
ignore the reality of the system underlying it.
There is also the question of the de-branding of the IITs. The IIT, it
can be reasonably argued, is the one sole government-created,
government-owned brand which has managed to win global recognition and
accolades for quality, consistency and excellence. Hardly anything else
sporting a ‘Made in India' label can have the kind of automatic access
which an IIT degree gives its holder.
Soft power
The kind of ‘soft power' wielded by IITs extends far beyond the realms
of academia. IITs have contributed the cream of managerial talent to
India Inc. There is hardly any BSE 100 company which does not boast of
IITians in positions of power. More than any other collegiate group, IIT
grads have helped script the India success story. Indeed, many
distinguished alumni are heading, or have helmed, giant transnational
corporations and have, directly or indirectly, helped focus attention on
the potential of India and Indians.
That kind of recognition and access was hard won, earned on the back of
one of the most ruthlessly competitive selection systems. To now dilute
the essence of that system is shooting oneself in the foot. Fairness or
unfairness has nothing to do with it. The IITs are about excellence, not
social engineering.
School exams are used as a qualifier, even in the US, which Mr Sibal so
clearly wants to eliminate. Other systems which have produced excellence
— our medical colleges, the IIMs, even the hallowed Indian
Administrative Service — use the school or college exam results as a
pre-qualifier and rely on their own system to pick the right candidate.
Why can't the IITs be allowed to do so as well? Why try to fix something
which isn't broken?
