Common entrance exams will undermine IITs' autonomy, taint standard of students
The Indian Institutes of Technology alumni association here has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention in keeping the IITs out of the purview of the joint entrance examination (JEE) lest it “undermine the autonomy” of the premier institutions and also “adversely impact” standards of students.
“Since you are the executive head of the country, we feel we shall be failing in our duty to the nation should we not apprise you of our concerns on this matter and earnestly expect a solution to the same in a democratic and transparent manner,” said Somnath Bharti, coordinator, IITians for IITs Autonomy and president, IIT Delhi Alumni Association.
On May 28, Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal announced a JEE for admission to all undergraduate courses in engineering including the IITs, claiming all IIT Councils had agreed to the proposal. The IIT alumni and faculty, though, have been opposing it.
Responding to the developments, Mr. Sibal said five of the seven IIT Senates — the highest decision-making bodies — had supported the proposal. The only dispute was over IITs having control over the entrance examination, which has been agreed upon. The demand that school marks be not counted in the final assessment for IIT admissions was also accepted.
The IITians for IITs Autonomy, the support group by the IIT alumni, pointed out in the letter to Dr. Singh that the institutes were created by Jawaharlal Nehru to bring technological excellence and leadership for India. “It is a matter of great pride that these institutions have lived up to his expectation and their excellence over time has been established across the world. We believe that instead of providing additional autonomy to take these institutions to a level where they can produce Nobel laureates, slowly but surely their autonomy is being destroyed because of the short-sighted approach of the HRD Ministry.”
While the Ministry was unable to address the incompetence, inefficiency, governance and standards of schools and examinations, it had taken upon itself the task of destroying the autonomy of IITs, the letter said.
Keywords: joint entrance examination, IITs
IITs do not belong a particular group of people. It belongs to every one who is eligible to enter. Having only one entrance exam is good idea. But you have to make sure science and math subjects are uniform in all boards whether it is state or centre. Make sure qualified teachers are available for poor children too. A particular group feels insecured when they are not able to fight with rural students. That comes out in the form of protest.
IIT entrance reforms as professed by Kapil Sibal after accepting IIT Senates' demands will make entering into IITs even more difficult for students need to clear advanced subject test (like current JEE) as well as logical reasoning test (main test). Also they have to score high on the school board. Instead of single overhead there is a triple overhead for the student in the proposed pattern.
It is best to keep IIT-JEE as it was before in the best interests of aspiring students as well as in the interests of IITs and their contribution to India and the world. Sibal should restrain from breaching into IITs autonomy.
What Sibal needs to do is take every conceivable measure to strenghten school education across school boards of the nation and restore highest standards in them, far away from their current steep nosedive in quality.
How can the proposed admission changes affect autonomy of IITs.. As per my analysis, marks obtained in 12th boards and jee-main stage would only serve as qualifier for jee-advanced stage; Final merit list for admissions to iits would be based solely on marks obtained in jee-advanced. And as per news articles, IIT's would have complete say on setting papers of both jee-advanced and mains. CBSE would give administrative assistance in conduct of exam. So how come the autonomy of our prestigious institutes and standard of students will fall..? Feel free to point out any factual errors in my analysis- being an iit alumni myself, I am just trying to understand why such hullabaloo is being created over a justified step.
This is a good idea. The quality of education must improve in all the colleges not only in IITs. IITs, as Mr. Narayana Murthy said are not giving word class education to the prime brains they pickup. No way the current decision is going to affect the quality of education of IITs. The Alumnus are worried about the dilution of the "Halo" surrounding the JEE.It is arguably one of the toughest examination being conducted. While Industry heads are complaining about the lack of industry orientation of IITs, atleast let others get the benefit of millions being spent on the conduct of JEE.
“It is a matter of great pride that these institutions have lived up to his
expectation and their excellence over time has been established across the world".
On contrary I would argue IIT did little to nothing for the betterment of India. It
only fills the knowledge worker needs of western society not our country.
Its high time the money and effort spent on IIT is diverted to other institutes and
improve overall standard of any engineer coming out of India.
Nehru made a mistake let HRD correct it now.
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