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New Sibal plan to make entry into IITs tougher

A compromise formula aimed at breaking the deadlock between teachers and HRD minister Kapil Sibal over admissions to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) could end up hurting hundreds of thousands of aspiring students.
Under the new formula, only the top 20% students in respective class 12 board exams would be eligible for appearing in the IIT entrance exam, top government and IIT sources told HT.

The compromise was brokered by the Prime Minister, who met members of the protesting All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIFF) last week and asked Sibal to consider their demands.

Sibal had wanted an admission system where the board exam percentile was given weightage along with scores in a screening test while selecting candidates for a second, advanced entrance exam. This process allowed students who scored relatively lower in the boards to make up for it by doing better in the screening test.

But faced with persistent opposition from IIT faculty federations on weightage to board scores, Sibal has asked IIT-Delhi director RK Shevgaonkar to seek the opinion of faculty across the IITs on the compromise plan.

The new proposal, to be discussed by the IIT senates and faculty associations this week, places students in the top 20 percentile of board scores on an equal footing in the selection process.

This would negate Sibal’s intention of encouraging students to focus on their board exams, but rob 80% students of even a chance of trying for the IITs.

Since the class 12 results are unlikely to be declared in time for the two-tier IIT test, all students would need to appear for the exams even if their board marks turn them ineligible later.

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IIT-Kanpur academic senate to discuss new proposals on Common Entrance Test

The demand of the members of faculty forum of IIT-Kanpur of convening an urgent meeting of the academic senate to discuss HRD ministry's proposal of making changes in the joint entrance examination and conducting Common Entrance Test (CET) in 2013 for students willing to take admission into IITs, NITs, and IIITs, has been accepted by chairman Sanjay Govind Dhande. The meeting would be held on June 8.

A member of faculty forum said that if other IITs will agree and do what HRD ministry wants, then IIT-Kanpur will conduct its own entrance examination. This issue will be discussed in the senate meeting.

A group of faculty members said all the issues related to the JEE-2013 and CET would be discussed.Some faculty members are against the common entrance test which the HRD ministry wants to conduct in 2013. They are also protesting against the proposed changes in the JEE where the performance candidates in class XII would also be taken into consideration. A total of 40 per cent of a student's performance would be measured through his class XII marks and the remaining would be valued through the JEE.

The teachers are also angry that their suggestions were ignored by the HRD ministry.

Meanwhile, the members of the faculty forum told TOI that they will not accept the common entrance test as recommended by HRD ministry as IITs have their own standards which cannot be at par with other entrance examinations.

The teachers mentioned that IIT council, the apex body for the IITs in the country, would be required to pass an ordinance before the implementation of the new proposals made by HRD ministry.

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IIT aspirants struggle to adjust as new engineering test gets green signal

Students preparing for the newcommon engineering test scheduled for 2013, find themselves struggling to adjust to the new format, under which the earlier neglected board exams are now being given 40% weightage. Apart from other colleges, the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) is now the sole gateway to the prestigious IITs, for which aspirants start preparing at least two years in advance.

Prince Saluja, a student of Guru Nanak High School and Junior College, has been preparing for the IITs since last year. "I will be appearing for the exam next year and suddenly I am faced with a total change in the pattern. For the last one year, my focus has been on cracking the competitive exam with board exam studies on the back burner. However, with a 40% weightage to the boards in the JEE, I have to now shift gears midway and am afraid that there is not enough time left," said Saluja.

Nisha Kothari owns a coaching centre in the city and feels students have no choice but to change their study approach. "Time management will be the key and students will have to refocus on their board exams as there is no choice. Though at my centre, students are prepared for state board simultaneously, hence it does not become a huge problem, but now that effort has to be greater," said Kothari.

She adds that students who top the popular AIEEE too, score an average of 75%-80% in their board exams, which gives an indication on where their focus is.

Parents too are a worried lot as they apprehend the changes will jeopardize their wards' chances in JEE 2013. Akshay Naik (name changed), said, "My son shifted to the state board in Std XI and took admission at a city college where attendance is not mandatory. He uses that time in studying at the coaching class and practice for the JEE, but now I have to start his tuitions for the state board exam as well. The government has turned every kid who will appear for Std XII next year into guinea pigs for its academic experiment."

Abhishek Bansal, from whose coaching centre this year's city IIT topper came, feels that rural students would lose out in a big way. "By the time the information percolates everywhere, too much time would have been lost. Also in city, one can get access to good tutors who can help with their preparations but that is going to be an uphill task for the rural folks," said Bansal.

Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal will meet state education ministers on June 5 to further discuss the implementation of the JEE.

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