Review of Admission Process in IITs

My views on the ‘proposal’ of reviewing the Admission System in IITs and its impact on coaching industry/Resonance:

About IITs

IITs stand for Indian Institutes of Technology. IITs are the autonomous institutions set up by the Govt. of India (under the control of Ministry of HRD) for educational excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, Research and other various contemporary/emerging areas. IITs are renowned worldwide because of their flagship undergraduate programmes (B.Tech.) in Engineering/Technology. The students passing out from IITs are world over known as IITians. There are 15 such institutions in India currently functioning and producing 7000+ engineering/technology graduates every year. These graduates are hired by the best of the companies worldwide (mostly US based) because of their knowledge & intelligence level, hard working attitude and entrepreneurial & innovative skills.

What is the Existing Admission System in IITs:

All the IITs jointly conduct a National Level (at All India Level) Knowledge Cum Aptitude Test (or an entrance examination) every year for admission into various undergraduate programs of IITs. This entrance examination is known as IIT-JEE. IIT-JEE stands for Indian Institutes of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination. This is the entrance examination for admission into

The following is the ‘existing’ criteria for appearance in IIT-JEE:

i) A student appeared/qualified Class-XII from any recognized board with Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics can appear in IIT-JEE.

ii) A student has to score 60% (For General/OBC Category)/55% (for SC/ST/PD Category) marks in Class-XII Examinations of respective Board & qualify in the Main Merit List of IIT-JEE to be eligible for admission into IITs.

iii) A student gets only two attempts to appear in IIT-JEE. The first attempt is along with Class-XII Board examination and the second & last attempt in the very next year after Class-XII Board examinations.

Why IIT-JEE is such a ‘special’ examination:

i) IIT-JEE is known for one of the toughest examination world over at Class-XII level.

ii) This is an examination of ‘rejection’ rather than ‘selection’.

iii) In 2009, approx. 3,85000 students appeared in this examination.

iv) To get a seat in any of the IITs; there are more than 50 students competing in IIT-JEE. A selection rate of as low as less than 2%.

v) Best of the students across the India at Class-XII level appear in the examination for a seat in these coveted institutions. Therefore it’s an examination of selecting the best students amongst the most intelligent lot of students.

vi) The entrance examination is a rigorous process wherein a student has to appear in two papers of three hours each in a single day covering the two years ‘common’ syllabus taught at Class-XI and Class-XII level in various boards. In each paper, questions of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics are asked. Each paper ‘roughly’ consists of 20-24 questions of each subject. It makes around 60-72 questions in three hours in each paper.

vii) The test paper is of objective type comprising questions of multiple difficulty level and variety thus testing the knowledge, aptitude, comprehension and analytical abilities.

viii) The questions asked in IIT-JEE are ‘mostly’ application oriented and highly innovative in nature. These questions are ‘rarely’ repeated.

ix) The tag of ‘IIT’ is considered a symbol of social recognition in the Indian Society and it is one the most sought career option amongst the students.

x) The ‘preparatory classes’ or ‘coaching classes’ (to train the students for IIT-JEE) has become a lucrative business opportunity for many edupreneaurs across India. A small city, named ‘Kota’, in the state of Rajasthan of India, has become one of the most popular destinations for IIT aspirants. The unprecedented success of Kota’s coaching classes has given its an acronym of ‘Mecca of Coaching’ since it is churning out almost every 4^th student entering into IIT. Some of the coaching institutes of Kota are amongst the popular choice of students across the country aspiring for IITs.

What Mr Kapil Sibbal , the Union Cabinet Minister of HRD, Govt. of India, has proposed (dtd. 19^th October , 2009) for admission system in IITs?

1. The system of admission/selection process in IITs (i.e. IIT-JEE) should be reviewed.
2. There should be more weightage of school/board performance (% in Class-XII) in the admission/selection process.
3. A 3-member committee has been set-up to suggest/recommend changes in the admission/selection process into IITs. The committee is expected to submit its reports to Ministry of HRD in next three months.
4. Another committee is also set up which will table its report in next six months. This committee will give recommendations to prepare a roadmap or VISION-2020 document for IITs.

The proposed changes are aimed at increasing the minimum percentage in qualifying board examination i.e. Class-XII from the existing 60% to the higher % (unofficially 80% or even more).

The Background of the ‘proposed’ changes:

i) Ministry of HRD is planning to open Indian Education System for the Foreign Universities/Educational Institutions. This might lead to fierce competition between foreign and Indian institutions. To compete with the foreign educational institutions; Indian Universities need to upgrade their students’ intake/admission system, academic programmes, course curriculum, quality of faculty, teaching/learning methodology, infrastructure & facilities, industry orientation/exposure to the students, employability of the students, job opportunities/placement for the passing out students and access/affordability of higher education to deserving students etc.

ii) A ‘so-called’ study/research has revealed that the quality of students getting into IITs is deteriorating. The reasons/arguments suggested behind this are: pushing of ‘coaching students’ into IITs by the various coaching institutes/preparatory classes through practicing & mastering of the pattern of examination/testing system.

iii) The ‘ coaching industry’ has become a booming business in IIT-JEE sphere across the country and students are focusing more on attending coaching classes rather then attending schools or preparing for school/board examinations. As argued by the IITs governing council; this is causing serious impact on their performance in school/board examinations.

iv) These ‘coached/trained’ students are performing ‘not-so-well’ in the IITs; hence the overall quality of students passing out from IITs is getting inferior compared to previous years.

v) Many good schools which are having a ‘great’ lobbying in the political corridors at New Delhi are pushing to kill the ‘coaching system’ since they are losing good students at Class-XI & XII level in favour of ‘organized/branded’ coaching institutes. Instead of upgrading the quality of their own faculty/teachers/ and teaching methodology according to the special needs of competitive examinations like IIT-JEE etc.; and competing with coaching institutes; they are working on ‘typical’ Indian route of ‘killing the competition’ by unfair means.

vi) Urban v/s Rural students in IITs: Before 2000 or so there was lack of awareness among rural students about IITs. IITs were mostly getting students from urban areas. These students are English speaking and making a so called ‘elite’ in IITs. The Professors at IITs were used to very happy and comfortable with these ‘smart’ students. Post 2000; because of increasing awareness amongst the students of rural areas or small towns (this is because of coaching institutes; Govt. is doing nothing to create awareness about IITs in these areas accept publishing couple of newspaper advt.). The coaching institutes are able to create confidence amongst these students (coming from rural areas/small towns) to take on IIT-JEE and get through successfully. The ‘elite’ group of Professors is not able to absorb the success of small town students or the students from rural areas since they are not as ‘smart’ as their counterparts from urban areas because of their academic background and living conditions. However; they are no less than the so called ‘smart’ and English speaking students in intellect capital. At one side; these students from rural areas or small towns are changing their generations (I can quote 100s of examples to support my statement); on the other hand their success is being seen as dilution of academic standards at IITs by the IIT Professors. What an irony in a country like India. These ‘poor’ Professors at IITs need more ‘BUDDHI’ rather than ‘DHAN’ for which they are on the path of strike and boycott of academic work.

vii) A student has two academic environments when he/she is passing out from any IIT. The first that he had at School and the second at IITs. The employability of student in the job market is the output of these two environments. This is the fundamental of ‘quality crisis’ amongst the students. The Minister of HRD and the Professors at IITs should do something to improve the educational standards at schools across the country and in the IITs respectively instead of playing too much with IIT-JEE.

The implications behind execution of proposed changes:

1. Indian Education System has various boards (approx. more than 35) which conduct the qualifying examination of Class-XII for IIT-JEE. These boards are categorized into following categories:

i) National Level Boards like CBSE, ICSE.

ii) State Level Boards (more than 30) like Rajasthan Board, UP Board, Maharashtra Board etc.

iii) International Boards like IGCSE, IB etc.

iv) Open Schooling Board called NIOS.

The academic standards and evaluation system of these boards is not standardized and vary drastically from one to another. Even the course syllabus of all the boards is not standardized and each board follows its own syllabus. Typically IIT-JEE has its own syllabus which is taught commonly in almost all the boards.

Looking into the above aspect; it would be vary challenging task to determine a ‘higher’ minimum % (more than the existing 60%) in Class-XII board examinations. This can be better understood by the following example: A student getting more than 90% or more marks in a particular board might not be as intelligent as a student getting similar score or even lower score in the other board. In some boards students get as high as 96-97% marks while in some other boards the highest marks above 90% is a rare phenomenon. In such a situation, drawing a minimum % criterion on higher side (perhaps 80% or more) could lead to denial of an equal opportunity to the students of several boards where getting 80% or more marks is really a hard nut to crack.

2. At one side; the Govt. has recently proposed abolition of % system/introduction of Grading System in Schools and making Class-X board examination an ‘optional’ one because of reducing the stress level amongst the students; the other side by raising the bar of minimum % in qualifying examination to appear in IIT-JEE is a step towards increasing stress amongst the students; since they will ‘sandwiched’ between the pressure of scoring high% in board examinations and getting through the IIT-JEE successfully.
3. The consideration of very high minimum % in board examinations for admission into IITs is against the very concept of creating ‘entrance examination system’ for the similar objective. If Board % is so important then there is no need of conducting a separate entrance examination like IIT-JEE for admission into IITs. Let IIT-JEE is abolished and Board % in Class-XII should become the sole criterion of getting admission into IITs.
4. The time of announcement of results of Board Examinations (Class-XII) for various boards is also vary from one board to another. Some boards announce it as early as in the middle of May while some stretch it till the middle of June. It might lead to the delay in the announcement of result of IIT-JEE which is otherwise declared in the last week of May every year. This could further delay the counseling process of seats allotment in IITs and ultimately delaying of academic session.
5. Many State Govt. might oppose the decision of raising the minimum % marks criterion in the qualifying examination to the ‘unreasonably higher side (perhaps 80% or more). This is so because the Assessment and Evaluation System of respective State Education Board might require ‘serious’ overhaul in such a case; which seems to be a distinct possibility.
6. There is GAP between How it is taught in the schools and How it is asked in the IIT-JEE. The teachers in the schools (even best of the schools of our country) are simply incapable of teaching upto the level of IIT-JEE. Neither the Schools nor these ‘poor’ teachers are at fault because our Education System in Schools wants a teacher who is having a degree of B.Ed. and not B.Tech. from an IIT (an IIT-JEE qualified candidate). The coaching institutes are ‘just’ filling this GAP between the ‘formal’ education system (schools) and the need of the competition (IIT-JEE). An IIT-JEE qualified candidate can not find the job of a teacher in any of our schools affiliated to these ‘great’ National/International Boards; while a B.Ed. trained candidate who is no where a match to these ‘professional’ coaches’ is supposed to coach/train the students for IIT-JEE; which he/she might have not even attempted in the past (leave aside his/her capabilities of cracking it successfully). This is something like our Hockey Team is being coached by an ex-played who has never played above the state level and expecting to win a medal at Olympic games by the same team.
7. A dual system of % in Board Exams and cracking the entrance examination i.e.IIT-JEE for admission into IITs is not going to work alone. What about the entrance system for admissions into IIMs, NITs, AIMS and other centrally-funded institutions/universities of higher education across the country. The recent environment doesn’t have any answer to that.
8. Lastly, introducing an unreasonably higher minimum % marks criterion in the qualifying examination system is against the fundamental right of providing fair and equal opportunity to compete. e.g. A brilliant student due to some reasons beyond his/her control (like illness, accident etc.) scores just below the ‘higher’ minimum % (suppose 79% in case of 80% criterion); he/she would not be able to get admission into IITs even if he/she cracks IIT-JEE with a good all India Rank. Any explanation to this situation in a justified way would be the challenging task for the ‘Review Committee’.

Possibility of Impact on ‘Coaching System’ due to proposed changes:

1. IIT-JEE has gone series of changes in the last decade. The coaching industry has grown astoundingly over a period of last 10 years despite so many changes.
2. Like good schools and bad schools; there are also good coachings and bad coaching institutes. If some coachings are exploiting the students then what about the ‘great Indian School’ which are charging lacs of rupees as tuition/donation fee every year but unable to produce a single student who can crack IIT-JEE fully backed by their educational methodology. What changes our Education System require to address this issue???
3. The organized/branded coaching institutes which are infact producing the ‘real’ results in IIT-JEE are few and they are simply surviving/growing on Merit of their Training/Coaching Methodology. They employ ‘a high quality’ faculty (which includes IIT-JEE qualified teachers , a well researched study material, rigorous teaching methodology and systematic testing according to IIT-JEE pattern with an objective of making their students successful in IIT-JEE.
4. The proposed ‘changes’ might initially impact the coaching industry to some extent but the industry itself will evolve itself according to the ‘changed’ needs (which it has already done successfully on several occasions in the past as well).

What ‘Coaching Industry’ is going to do in case of ‘proposed/planned’ changes are introduced:

1. Development of Coaching Courses/Programmes in collaboration with schools to train/coach the students in the school premises.
2. Balancing the ‘possible’ impact of ‘school going students (Class-XI & XII) coming for coaching’ by getting more rush of ‘droppers/repeaters’ students (Class-XII passed students having last chance to appear in IIT-JEE).
3. Introducing new courses having relevant exposure to Board Pattern apart from fulfilling the needs of the IIT-JEE (Competition Pattern).
4. Introducing Mock Testing System according to dual pattern of Board & IIT-JEE.
5. The branded/organized coaching institutions scaling up their operations through branching out in various cities across the country.
6. Using technology as the new age tool to optimize the productivity and enhance the reach of coaching products/services.
7. Overall, a new Coaching Concept will emerge which will increase the need of coaching not only to ‘good’ performance in IIT-JEE but also in Board Examinations. This might again ‘dilute’ the impact of ‘proposed changes’ and further pave the way to more changes in the future…….and the cycle will go on.

What Govt. should do to Kill the Coaching Industry??

What is the rationale behind the proposed change in the admission process into IITs. Is it for increasing the academic standards of IITs or it is just a change for the sake of change and targeting the coaching institutes. If it is for the purpose of elevating the quality of education at IITs then any such step is always welcome. However, if it is just aimed at killing the coaching institutes; it is not going to take anywhere. The Govt. should address the fundamental issues which have led to rise of the coaching industry rather than crying a foul over the success of coaching industry and involving too much in the verbal abuse of killing it by such ‘flimsy’ ideas. The Govt. is supreme power in a democracy in a country like India. If they really want to kill coaching industry; following suggestions from my side might work in the favour of Govt.:

1. The Govt. should first declare a blanket ban on any type of coaching. This might include coaching for Indian Civil Services (which is the oldest in the History of Competitive coaching education and is growing the most in New Delhi itself), Engineering/Medical/Management Entrances or if possible Sports Coaching as well so that we don’t produce any medal even in South Asian Federation (SAF) Games.
2. The Govt. should declare the Tax Amount that it has collected from Coaching Industry (Direct/Indirect Taxes) in the past. It should be returned back to the respective coaching institutions/individuals and they should be asked to stop coaching activities.
3. The Govt. should destroy/demolish any development project built over a period in the past where it has used the Tax Amount collected from Coaching Industry.
4. The Govt. should ask the IITs to prepare a question paper of IIT-JEE on the pattern of Board Examinations instead of asking questions which even the school teachers can not solve.
5. The Govt. should establish a National Board of Standardization in School Certification (NBSSC) or National Board of School Examination (NBSE) to develop standardized teaching, assessment and evaluation system across the country.
6. The Govt. should ask all the School Teachers (teaching Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at Class-Xi & XII level in Schools) to appear in IIT-JEE as well and Grade the School’s Academic Standard according to its teacher’s performance in IIT-JEE (perhaps few schools even qualify for the Grading).
7. The Govt. should invest its energy on upgrading the skill of teachers teaching in the schools rather then wasting energy on giving statements to kill the coaching industry.
8. I think the Govt. is too much concerned about the quality of students coming out of IITs. It is appreciative but an equal concern about the quality of politicians who take decision about the future of the country is also need of the hour.For that the Parliament should also conduct an All India Entrance Examination for Political Governance to produce ‘great’ political leaders who can think of Nation’s Progress instead of their own progress. A minimum percentage in qualifying examination (I suggest Graduation Passed at least) might help to achieve the objective. This could perhaps be helpful in eradicating more dangerous evils from the country rather than merely killing the coaching.
9. The Parliament should pass a Prohibition of Coaching Act (POCA) across the country and make coaching an unbailable and punishable offence.
10. The Govt. should ask all its employees (Central/State) and political leaders (MPs/MLAs/MLCs/Others) to send their children compulsorily to Govt. run schools only so that others can also follow.

Conclusions:

1. The proposed changes in the ‘present suggested form’ are difficult to implement.

2. A little increase in minimum % criteria won’t create much difference.

3. The objective of ‘killing the coaching industry’ is not going to be fulfilled. Infact, it will expand in a new form of ‘Board-IIT-JEE Coaching’.

4. It could harm the interest of students coming from small towns/rural areas/state boards.

5. There is more to be done for the fundamental reasons behind the rise of coaching industry i.e. ‘a parallel education system’. It involves enhancements of quality of education in schools and raising the competence level of teachers.

*******Not an end*******