IIT Kanpur Professor(CSE) Mr.Dheeraj Sanghi tweet,- In the last couple of days, there have been numerous articles in media that IIT JEE and AIEEE will merge into one exam in 2013, that the weight of this exam will not be 100 percent, but 50 or 60 percent, with remaining weight being given to 12th class marks. That there is some formula that has been created for normalizing 12th class marks across all boards. Media tells us that MHRD officials are very secretive and tightlipped about the details. It also tells us that most IIT Directors are willing to say only little and that too on the condition of anonymity. Apparently there is a meeting of IIT Council on 18th February, where the detailed proposal will be presented and approved, and it will be implemented with admission cycle of 2013 (since admission process for 2012 is already on). I hope the media is wrong, and all this is just rumor. While I have been arguing in this blog that there are many things wrong with JEE, and that IITs need to do something about the problem of students not paying attention to the school education, doing changes in such a secretive fashion is likely to create more problems and not solve existing problems. Solutions must be available in public. People should be able to debate those changes and give their feedback. IIT Council, in its wisdom, may ignore that feedback, and decide what it collectively believes is best for IITs (and the society). But not giving anyone a chance to opine is simply not cricket. Ministry is keen to reduce the number of entrance exams. Is this a real problem. Putting everything in one basket causes stress. A big reason for reforms was to reduce stress. If ministry really wants to reduce stress, it should see to it that entrance exams (including JEE and AIEEE) can be given multiple times till a candidate is satisfied with his/her performance. So more exams and not less are needed to help the student. Why so much hurry. That is easy to understand. 2014 is the year of general elections. Politicians do not want to do anything which could go wrong and become unpopular just around the election time. And it is not clear how to make moves now so that the Minister after 2014 elections is unable to stop the change. So you can’t assume that it will necessarily happen in 2015. So the only option is 2013, even if appears to be somewhat unfair to some students. If IITs were to considerably change their admission process and allow a 40-50 percent weight to the 12th class marks in 2013, would it not be unfair to someone who will give the 12th class exams in 2012. These students will claim that they spent much more time on the JEE test than the 12th class exams, since the marks in 12th class were not being counted towards admission, but now suddenly they are being told that their 12th class marks will indeed be considered for the admission purpose. The boards are currently under legal obligation (because of a Supreme Court decision) to announce the 12th class result by 30th June. But that is too late for IIT admission. Will it be possible to ensure that results of every single board is announced by say, 10th June. The specific questions that I am raising are not important. The important point is that if the process had been transparent, then lots of people would have had the opportunity to raise such questions, and if education sector will not have transparency then where else to expect transparency. I have no doubt in the wisdom of 40-50 wise persons who constitute IIT Council, but I do have doubts whether their combined wisdom is more than the combined wisdom of all other stake holders. At the end, I am really hoping that media is just indulging in speculation and there is really no such secretive proposal that will be discussed and approved with just an hour of discussion.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 06:33:49 +0000