Quick Edit | Leave IIT-JEE alone

HRD policy do not seem to be consistent - on one hand they are getting rid of point based scoring in CBSE while with JEE going ahead with increasing the cut off percentage. Would the CBSE students be able to adjust to the new way of grading between 10th and 12th standard? Going to grade based ranking in CBSE in itself is half baked cake - how can you expect the schools to do internal ranking and be fair when there are no clear ranking mechanism of the school themselves (ministers share only part of ranking process when they quote international processes - most developed countries who allow school to do internal grading follow inter-school ranking process - India has no process for separating good school from developing (or not so good schools).

Posted On 10/20/2009 2:32:16 AM

why not same implemented for Politicians also. for MP only 532 seats are available. why not put 98% marks requirement in their educational career. why we get dumb politicians why try to rule us.

Posted On 10/20/2009 5:24:55 AM

This step is fully justified and I would like to support it as we do at BITS Pilani. BITS Pilani stands equal to the IITs in the Private Sector and has been conducting its own On-line entrance exam BITSAT for the past 5 years now and the eligibility for taking the test is minimum of 80% at the 10+2 level, after which the qualified students are given the streams of their choice according to their test scores.This selection procedure is Common for all the three campuses at Pilani,Hyderabad and Goa. In addition to this, BITS pilani gives direct admissions (giving them immunity from the On-line test) to respective Board Toppers in the Stream of their choice. This has lead to an overall rise in the quality of students entering the university and has also been responsible for students giving attention to the NCERT, or their respective Boards' study material, which is good for smooth running of our senior secondary school/pre-collage system.

Posted On 10/20/2009 5:56:19 AM

I do agree with your view that politicians are not equipped to decide on academic requirements. But... § the IIT JEE is not intended to be merely a means to pick out the best candidates. It is designed, as all Entrance Tests ought to be, to *eliminate* unfit candidates. Therefore, the suggestion for increasing ELIGIBILITY marks at the Board level is not a bad idea. It has to be seriously discussed by the IITs. At the same time, they have to ensure that discussion will not be coloured by the possibility that increase in the eligibility marks will hit IITs' income from sale of "prospectus" and admission forms, and, admission fees.

Posted On 10/20/2009 7:02:34 AM

The intention here is to ensure that students focus on their board exams as well. Lot of students devote all their time preparing for JEE using the material provided by training institutes and neglect their curriculum. However,due to the competitive nature of JEE, only a handful get into IITs while many end up without a seat or a good Class XII score,which doesn't do them any good. The trick here is to make the syllabus highly application based and not very theoretical.This will bode well not only for the students, but also for IITs since the JEE aims to test a student's ability to apply a concept. This can be achieved by inducting IIT faculty into the syllabus and question paper setting panels.

Posted On 10/20/2009 11:38:59 AM

The author argues that "Politicians are not equipped to make such decisions." It is akin to saying that only an economist should be the Finance Minister of the country. Moreover, Kapil Sibal has never said "examination marks alone" are "a marker of academic excellence". Rather they are one among of the many markers.

Posted On 10/20/2009 11:43:48 AM

I would disagree with the writer. 12th class course is a subset of that required for IIT JEE (maths, physics, chemistry)and is far less intense. Students who excel at IIT JEE crack 12th exams with far greater ease and should. It is extremely essential that these students also concentrate on the non-quantitative subjects like language etc. and receive the holistic education which is meant to be imparted in 12th. what happens today is that students join fake schools 10-12 and only practice for IIT-JEE. Its like training machines and killing creativity and talent.

Posted On 10/20/2009 12:33:07 PM

I would disagree with the writer. 12th class course is a subset of that required for IIT JEE (maths, physics, chemistry)and is far less intense. Students who excel at IIT JEE crack 12th exams with far greater ease and should. It is extremely essential that these students also concentrate on the non-quantitative subjects like language etc. and receive the holistic education which is meant to be imparted in 12th. what happens today is that students join fake schools 10-12 and only practice for IIT-JEE. Its like training machines and killing creativity and talent.

Posted On 10/20/2009 12:33:07 PM

Sibal is right. This will discourage the coaching business which only rich can afford and which any way stops real learning

Posted On 10/20/2009 2:54:28 PM

We should quit paining all the politicians with the same brush. Kapil Sibal is a learned person and a graduate from Havard Law School, and seems as much if not more qualified than some of the IIT profs that I have seen. Increasing the cut off marks only encourages competition, not reduce it.

Posted On 10/21/2009 1:24:35 AM

Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal made it clear on earlier occasions that Class X exams would be made optional to ease the burden of students. This move will certainly paves the way for casual approach towards examination system. Now the minister says that certain percentage of marks beyond a stipulated benchmark in class XII would be the eligibility criteria to compete in the joint entrance examination conducted by IITs.When writing public exams is optional upto Class XI, how can we expect a student to get good percentage of marks beyond a benchmark in Class XII in order to enable him to write the IIT exam. In fact this move will give further scope for mushrooming of coaching centers. Hence, there is no point in fixing certain criteria for facing competitive exams like IIT. Instead of tinkering with the present pattern of evaluation, it is desirable to preserve the existing pattern to maintain IIT standards. For achieving the objective of inclusive education, government has already relaxed lot of stringent pass percentages and offering subsidies in fees, hostel food & accommodation etc and offering the same for ineligible students also due to pressure from vested interests. When it comes to higher education, government should not dilute the existing standards. If dilution is the mantra, the quality will be in jeopardy which is not good for the students and for the country also.

Posted On 10/21/2009 10:37:54 AM