507 - JEE changes made in a hurry: IITs - Business Standard

Kalpana Pathak & M Saraswathy  |  Mumbai  July 17, 2013 Last Updated at 21:50 IST

JEE changes made in a hurry: IITs

IIT alumni association to protest demanding restoration of the original examination system

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is yet to decide on reviewing the changes in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) joint entrance examination (JEE), but the IITs have given their verdict - the changes have been brought about in a hurry and have complicated the examination.

"We had been, since the beginning, suggesting this new pattern should be implemented from 2014, but to no avail. Though incorporating board marks for admission to IITs is a good move, the new format was implemented in a hurry, without much thought," said Gautam Barua, director, IIT-Guwahati.

"The new IIT JEE has complicated the entire admission process," said Devang Khakhar, director, IIT-Bombay.

Last year, then MHRD minister Kapil Sibal had cleared the proposal to hold the JEE in two parts-main and advanced. Students applying to the IITs have to appear for JEE-main. Of these students, only the top 1,50,000 are eligible for JEE-advanced. For final admission to the 16 IITs, based on JEE-advanced, a student has to be among the top 20 percentile in his respective standard-XII board.

While the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts JEE-main, JEE-advanced is conducted by IIT-Delhi.

Coaching institutes have said the new process of normalisation has made it difficult for deserving students to qualify. The director of a Kota-based coaching institute said, "If a student from Tripura who secured 58 per cent marks in board exams is selected, while one from Andhra Pradesh with 80 per cent isn't, there could be flaws in the system."

"We need to discuss with Indian Statistical Institute (which had prepared the formula for normalisation) experts how real is the issue and whether it a problem on a larger scale. Only after such an analysis can any change be proposed in the process," said a senior IIT official.

Meanwhile, members of the IIT alumni associations are set to go on an agitation later this month to protest against the new system. Somnath Bharti, ex-president of IIT-Delhi Alumni Association and a Supreme Court lawyer, said the matter was sub judice. "We are looking at engaging directly with ministry officials on this issue. It is very unfortunate that these issues have cropped up," he said.

MHRD officials said the Andhra Pradesh government had taken up the issue in a high court.


'State boards interpreted 20% rule differently'
At a meeting between Human Resource Development Minister Pallam Raju and IIT officials on Wednesday, it was said in the case of the new JEE norms, while the IITs had meant the 20 percentile rule was applicable for students clearing JEE-advanced, state boards had taken it as applicable to 20 per cent of the students appearing for JEE-main.

"The method of calculation of the top 20 percentile had been clearly stated by us from day one. Therefore, we presented this to the minister…we wouldn't make any change to it. However, state boards used a different formula for normalisation and this resulted in the confusion," said a senior IIT official who attended the meeting. It was also decided IITs would draw up a list of students affected by the new rule and hold another meeting to address the issue.

WHAT IS NORMALISATION?

Normalisation, as used in the Indian context, is a process for ensuring students are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the difficulty of exams they do for the Boards. This process is used in other countries with similar issues as in India

Normalisation process requires one to know the following

Percentile score: Percentile score of a candidate in a Board or JEE (Main) will reflect what percentage of candidates have scored below that candidate in that Board or JEE (Main) Examination

A percentile score is the value of below which a certain per cent of observations fall. For example, the 20th percentile is the value (or score) below which 20 per cent of the observations may be found

Example: Suppose we have 13,711 candidates in a Board, and a candidate who's score is 60% of Board marks has 6,865 candidates below him; his percentile score will be calculated as follows

Percentile score for 60% of Board marks: 6,865/13,711 x 100

506 - Govt accepts discrepancy in IIT admission process

Govt accepts discrepancy in IIT admission process

Many state boards did not calculate the 20 percentile according to the formula prescribed by IIT-Delhi

Prashant K. Nanda 

First Published: Wed, Jul 17 2013. 11 56 PM IST

IIT-Delhi is the organizing IIT for the JEE Advanced, the second part of the two-tier common engineering admission test. 

Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

The central government said on Wednesday that discrepancies in admissions to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were due to a miscalculation by various school boards.

Human resource development (HRD)minister M. M. Pallam Raju said after a review meeting with senior officials of the ministry and IITs that many state boards didn’t calculate the 20 percentile according to the formula prescribed by IIT-Delhi, the organizing IIT for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced, the second part of the two-tier common engineering admission test.

It wasn’t immediately clear what would happen to these students, some of whom have filed cases in various courts across the country.

On 12 July, the Supreme Court stayed proceedings in a case related to this in the Andhra Pradesh high court and said it would hear the matter.

While IIT-Delhi had said the percentile should be based on the number of students passing the school-leaving examination, several boards including that of Andhra Pradesh based it on the number of students who appeared for the board examination, Raju told reporters.

Raju said he doesn’t have the exact numbers for the students who missed out due to this.

The IITs said they excluded 79 students who did not make the cut despite holding top ranks in the JEE Advanced. The Madras zone that includes Andhra Pradesh, had 35 affected students, followed by 19 from Kharagpur zone and 14 from Kanpur zone.

“We have gone by the rule. It was clear from last year that the percentile will be calculated on successful candidates of respective boards. The percentile calculation was supposed to be done by the COBSE (Council of Boards of School Education) but several boards calculated it on their own,” said H.C. Gupta, the professor in-charge of the JEE-Advanced.

Gupta said most boards had miscalculated the percentile, indicating that the number of aggrieved students could rise.

He said Andhra Pradesh was the first to issue the percentile cut off.

Out of a total 530 marks in the Class 12 board exam, the top 20 percentile cut off was set at 476 marks for the general category. This should have been 487, he said.

Raju said that a related controversy over the normalization of different school boards for admission to all central government-funded engineering schools except IITs could not be discussed on Wednesday as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairman was travelling to attend a court case.

CBSE was in charge of the normalization process for admission to 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and other top schools.

Scores of parents and aggrieved students have approached high courts and the Supreme Court to stay the admission process based on the normalization, saying that at least 25,000 students have missed out on admission to top engineering schools.

The Supreme Court said last week that admission to engineering schools would be subject to its eventual ruling on a petition challenging the process, but refused to stay the admissions.

CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi could not be reached despite several calls to his mobile phone but an HRD ministry official said the government is in favour of clubbing all the cases, related to normalization as well as admission to the IITs, to be heard in the Supreme Court.

The official, who did not want to be named, also said that Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had reached out to Raju on the issue.

503 - JEE admission norms may be re-examined - Live Mint

JEE admission norms may be re-examined

HRD ministry may look into matter after complaints from students and cases before Supreme Court, other courts

Prashant K. Nanda 

First Published: Tue, Jul 16 2013. 12 24 AM IST

The process for admission to NITs and IITs has been criticized by students, academics and experts. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Updated: Tue, Jul 16 2013. 12 25 AM IST

New Delhi: The government may revisit and review the contentious Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) admission process for all central government-funded engineering schools other than the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), following complaints from students and cases before the Supreme Court and other courts.

Two government officials said the human resource development (HRD) ministry may do this because of the cases and also due to the possible politicization of the engineering admission process in Andhra Pradesh, the state the current Union HRD minister M.M. Pallam Raju hails from, and the one that has seen the most complaints.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that admissions to engineering schools would be subject to its eventual ruling on a petition challenging the process, but refused to stay the admissions.

The new format, part of an effort aimed at streamlining admissions and ensuring that students seeking admission to the central government-funded top engineering and technology schools don’t disregard their school-leaving examinations altogether, was conceptualized last year and went into effect this year.

The new process involves a JEE Main examination for admission to the 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), and other central government-funded engineering schools. Students will be selected to these schools on the basis of their performance in this exam (which has a 60% weightage) and their performance in the school-leaving examination (40% weightage). Since various boards around the country mark their students variously —some are generous, others not so—the process requires that the performance of a student in the school-leaving examination be “normalized”. The complaints as well as the case have to do with this normalization.

Neeraj Mehrotra, father of a student from Hyderabad, said that the normalization process is faulty and unscientific, and that he and other parents and students have filed a case in the Andhra Pradesh high court to intervene in the matter.

Separately, the top 150,000 students in the JEE Main examination are eligible to appear for a second test for admission to the IITs and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad—known as the JEE Advanced—provided they are also among the top 20 percentile of students in their school-leaving examination.

The process for admission to NITs and IITs has been criticized by students, academics and experts, although the HRD ministry believes it will put an end to the practice of students entirely ignoring their board examinations and focusing exclusively on the IIT entrance examination. Indeed, in some parts of the country, most notably Kota in Rajasthan, entire IIT ecosystems have emerged, where students enrol in residential prep courses that help them clear the examination even as understanding local schools enrol them in Class XII and allow them to appear for school-leaving examinations, often without attending any classes.

It isn’t clear whether the HRD ministry is considering reviewing this also, although it stands to reason that any change in the first level of the new two-tier examination process will affect the second level. The arguments behind normalization to ensure the removal of a board advantage stand for the use of the top-20 percentile criteria also.

“Some politicians and scores of students from Andhra (Pradesh) have tried to reach out to the HRD minister in the last few days over the issue of JEE. Since the minister is from Andhra, which goes to polls in 2014, it will be difficult to brush aside their concerns,” said one of the two HRD ministry officials cited above.

The general election is scheduled for next year, as are polls to the Andhra Pradesh assembly.

“Normalization is a headache; we are likely to revisit it once the minister is back,” the official said.

Some say the process is throwing up anomalies that are playing havoc with the prospects of students.

“Based on the (JEE-Main and board exam) performance of my son, we were expecting a rank within 10,000 but my son has got a ranking in excess of 33,500. Where will we get a chance to enrol in a good college now?” asked Mehrotra, the parent based in Hyderabad. The 30 NITs admit around 25,000 students every year.

Mehrotra added that some parents and students had met Andhra Pradesh intermediate education minister Parthasarathi K., who had assured them he would raise the issue with Union HRD minister Raju. The Andhra Pradesh minister confirmed that he had tried to reach Raju, who was travelling last week.

Raju was back in his office on Monday, but unavailable for comment despite several attempts.

The two government officials said the ministry was coming round to the view that the new process had been implemented in “haste”, said the first official, who referred to an Australian consultant contacted by the ministry also raising the issue of the fairness of the normalization process.

In a 10 July post on his blog, IIT-Kanpur professor Dheeraj Sanghi said: “The admission process in 2013 was expected to lead to many litigations, confusions, frustration and all that, and it is turning out to be exactly how it was predicted.” He added in his post that students were the casualty of an untested new system that hadn’t been thought through and which was being “imposed from the top”.

The plan had been conceived and implemented by former HRD minister Kapil Sibal, now the minister for telecommunication and information technology, and law.

Pramod Maheshwari, managing director of listed test prep chain Career Point Ltd, said the new system had failed to achieve its goal. “It has instead created enough confusion and stress among students,” he added.

The 20 percentile norm has particularly come in for criticism, Maheswari said. Several students missed out an IIT seat despite securing good ranks due to this, he said. The issue has also led to protests in Andhra Pradesh.

Vineet Joshi, chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which is in charge of the normalization process, didn’t respond to calls seeking comment.

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh high court has asked CBSE to reply to its notice and send its officials to explain the normalization process on 17 July, when it next hears the case.

The students and their parents had moved the court on 26 June, following which there have been two rounds of hearings. “The admission process will get over by 18 July and we hope there is some intervention before that. Else, it will be too late,” Mehrotra said.

477 - HRD minister steps in to boost quality in IITs, IIMs

HRD minister steps in to boost quality in IITs, IIMs

Prakash Kumar NEW DELHI, Dec 22, 2012, DHNS

‘Institutes not focussing on academic excellence’

Dissatisfied with the performance of newly set up IITs and IIMs, the government has gone tough on their directors, asking them to concentrate more on academic excellence and research in their institutes than on administrative issues.

This came at a recent meeting held by Human Resource Development Minister MM Pallam Raju with the heads of these premier technical and management institutes here.

During the meeting, the minister observed that the directors of these institutes were more concerned with their problems like difficulties in getting land from the state governments for setting up of permanent campus, utilisation of funds and purchase of equipments.

“The minister asked the directors to concentrate more on the academic matters like teaching, getting good faculty, industry linkage and enhancing research output,” sources in the HRD Ministry told Deccan Herald. The Centre established eight Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and six Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) during 11th Five Year Plan in order to create more quality professionals.

“However, they are yet to start yielding the desired results as they continue to focus more administrative issues than achieving academic excellence,” sources added.

Some of these institutes are yet to get adequate land for permanent campus while others, which have got land, are yet to finalise the master plan for the main campus. While the land has been handed over to IIT Mandi partially, the master plans are not ready for IIT-Jodhpur and IIT-Ropar.

Civil construction work of the departments and labs is to start at the sites meant for IITs in Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Jodhpur and Ropar. Among the new IIMs, IIM Ranchi is yet to get the land from the state government.

The directors feel that permanent campus would help their institutes enhance the academic and research activities. However, the minister, during the meeting, suggested that being academicians, they should focus more on academic issues and administrative issues like setting up of permanent campus should be handled by the registrar and other officials of their institutes, sources added.

468 - IIT alumni discuss changes to JEE with new HRD minister

IIT alumni discuss changes to JEE with new HRD minister

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, November 17, 2012

The alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) met with the new human resources development minister M Pallam Raju in Delhi on Friday, in what was described as a "positive meeting", to point out contentious issues in the entrance exam reforms.

The alumni had sought an appointment to raise the issue of the controversial changes to the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for entry into the IITs from next year. The alumni had contended that the changes went against previous court orders and that there were inherent flaws in the system.

The delegation that met the minister released a note after Friday's meeting saying they would follow up in a week, adding that the minister had heard them out and promised to look into the issues.

"[He] promised to give a fresh visit to the issues concerning the IITs, including controversial changes inducted in JEE by his predecessor," said the note from the alumni.

"He showed inclination to take actions which are in the interest of all the stakeholders of the IIT system. Without commenting, either way, on rolling back of the misdirected changes brought in JEE, he promised to give a patient hearing on the issues concerning IIT autonomy, including JEE."

In July, the IITs had agreed to a two-part exam and the use of board exam marks as an eligibility and not admission criterion. It was decided that from next year students would have to clear both exams and be within the top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their Class 12 board to get admission.

The alumni had vehemently opposed the ministry's attempts at changing the JEE. Finally, a compromise formula had been reached, with the IITs agreeing to a two-part exam with board marks as an eligibility, not an admission criteria.

     

460 - Alumni ask new HRD minister to look afresh at IIT entry test pattern

Alumni ask new HRD minister to look afresh at IIT entry test pattern

New Delhi, Oct 31, 2012, DHNS:

The alumni association of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, has sent a letter to the new Union human resource development minister M M Pallam Raju to look into the changed pattern of IIT-Joint Entrance Exam, which underwent changes during ex-HRD minster Kapil Sibal’s tenure.

“With a change in command in the HRD ministry, we are re-energising our drive to make the government understand that the new IIT-JEE pattern will solve none of the three problems Sibal had identified, rather the new pattern does exactly the opposite,” said Somnath Bharti, president of IIT-D Alumni Association.

Students are stressed due to multiplicity of entrance tests, heavy dependency on coaching institutes and lack of interest in school education.

“These problems cannot be fixed by disturbing a well-established entrance examination to the premier-most institutes of India,” he added.
Sibal had proposed that 40 per cent marks should be counted from class 12 board exams, and the rest through the common entrance test.

The proposal was criticised by a section of the IITs, which felt that the autonomy enjoyed by the IITs while conducting their own JEE has been taken away.

Students were of the view that with board marks being counted, it will be difficult for them to prepare for the entrance exam and score well in boards too.

Finally, it was decided that students who score in the top 20 per cent of their board exams will take the main or multiple-choice exam. The format will be implemented from 2013.

“Restricting the eligibility to JEE (main) to top 20 percentile of school boards, we believe is pro-rich and will be detrimental to the interests of students from rural India,” Bharti had said earlier.

The association members have sought an appointment with Raju to discuss the
matter.

459 - Fix flaws in IIT-JEE reforms, alumni to ask HRD minister

Fix flaws in IIT-JEE reforms, alumni to ask HRD minister

Bhavya Dore, Hindustan Times

Mumbai, November 01, 2012

Alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are looking to take up the contentious matter of entrance exam reforms once again, now that the new human resource development minister M Pallam Raju has taken charge. They are seeking an appointment to bring to his notice what they claim are flaws in the revised system. A letter from alumni was sent to the minister’s office on Wednesday.

In July the IITs agreed to a two-part exam and the use of board exam marks as an eligibility and not admission criterion.

It was decided that from next year students would have to clear both exams and be within the top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their Class 12 board to get admission.

He said that the SC had earlier said that the criteria for an entrance exam cannot be uncertain – in the case of a student’s IIT admission, the top 20%ile eligibility would vary from year to year depending on relative performance.
Further, a student might be declared ineligible after clearing both exams because he/ she was not in the top 20 percentile of their Class 12 board.

“There are judgements which come in the way of the new structure and format of the new IIT-JEE,” the letter addressed to the minister says.

It continues, “We are looking to your help to remedy the situation and to help IIT retain its high standards.”

The alumni had vehemently opposed the ministry’s attempts at changing the JEE claiming the plans interfered with the autonomy that IITs enjoyed. They also said that the IIT brand would be diluted on account of the changed admission procedure. So, a compromise was made, with the IITs agreeing to a two-part exam with board marks as an eligibility, not admission
criteria.