Wednesday, September 28, 2005

IIT-JEE makeover
 Unlimited gain or limited prospects

Will the proposed IIT-JEE guidelines pave the way for the selection of the best brains among the aspiring technocrats? Or will limiting the number of attempts and putting a lower limit on the plus two score queer the pitch in favour of those with access to the best learning and coaching grounds? Vibha Sharma finds out.

The new IIT-JEE guidelines announced recently are being viewed as a mixed bag. While the policy-makers are citing it as a step forward in streamlining the selection procedure, those at the receiving end of these changes are skeptical about their impact.

Among the IIT aspirants are those who feel the new format will increase their stress level and widen the gap that exists between employment opportunities for the rural and urban students. While the real impact will be known only once the new guidelines get implemented in 2007, there appears to have been one immediate fallout. The year 2006 is going to see an unprecedented number of students appearing for the IIT-JEE (Joint Entrance Exam). While close to 2 lakh students try their luck in the exam every year, 2006 is likely to see as many as 3 lakh youngsters taking the test. For as many as 60,000-1 lakh students this would be the last do-or-die attempt.

Attempts, not unlimited

Nitish Bhushan, a 17-year-old student of Birla Vidya Niketan, Delhi, who scored 96.2 per cent in Class X, will be among the lakhs of aspirants who will sit for the IIT-JEE on April 9, 2006. Whether he wants it or not, his first attempt has to be made next year. For, the new policy, which makes a minimum of 60 per cent score mandatory in plus two and limits the number of attempts to two, also stipulates that the first attempt has to be made in the year a student appears for the Class XII exam. Next year onwards, the age limit will cease to have any significance, as the first attempt has to be when a student is in Class XII and the second one in the following year. This means that if a student decides to drop the first attempt, he/she will be left with just one more chance. Rakesh Lalla, Head of Corporate Communication, FIITJEE, a leading coaching centre in Delhi, says while the earlier guidelines had many students dropping a year after the Class XII board exams to sit for the JEE, the new policy is likely to have students dropping a year of school before taking the test.

Rural-urban divide

Nitish
Nitish

Nitish feels that while the new policy may not affect most of the students, it won’t be good for students from states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. "Getting 60 per cent in Class XII may be no big deal for students who have the privilege of attending good schools, but for`A0students in UP and Bihar it’s not that easy. Before implementing the new policy, the government should have ensured uniform quality of education for all," he says.

Rakesh agrees. "The decision to change the existing pattern seems to have fallen short of its objectives as the two-attempt and 60 per cent-aggregate conditions would be fine if the education standard across the country was at par. But not when there is a wide gap between education standards in the rural and urban areas," he says.

The new pattern will be a hard blow, especially for rural students and those taking the board exams in UP, Bihar and Haryana, he opines.`A0 "The competition would become more biased in favour of the urban, rich students. Strictly speaking, the board exam and the JEE have two different objectives," Rakesh says.

Students and stress

As per the new policy, the JEE will now be a single objective-type examination that will include short write-ups on various topics, followed by objective questions based on the write-ups.` This, the policy-makers say, will test the comprehension as well as analytical ability of students. The reforms, as per the HRD Ministry, are aimed at reducing the stress level that the examination generates and also ensuring that students give due importance to their performance in the board examination.`

But Dr Ashok Chitkara, head of Chandigarh-based coaching centre, the Chitkara Institute of Engineering and technology, sees it differently." Till now, around 20,000 students would get selected out of about 5 lakh who took the screening test. Out of these, 5,000 students would be shortlisted for admissions to various IITs after the main examination. Earlier, a student who cleared the screening test but had a lower all-India rank could always work hard and pull up his score in the main examination. But under the proposed IIT-JEE pattern, it will all boil down to the performance in one test," he feels.

"Now with a single proposed IIT-JEE screening test, a lot of the luck factor would come into play. This will make the IIT-JEE even tougher to crack," adds Dr Chitkara.

Nitish too feels the new decision will end up increasing the youngsters’ dependence on`A0coaching centres and also the`A0level of stress. "At present, the coaching centers seem to be the only ones who are clear about what to expect in the next exam."`

Rakesh too is of the view that the new guidelines will now lead to early preparation and put more pressure on students. "As for the poor students, cracking the JEE would be an even more distant dream," he says.

Nitish says that announcing the new policy at a time when students have already planned on how they will prepare for next year’s exam is rather unnerving. Unsure about the difficulty level of the papers next year, Nitish just hopes "the new format maintains the same level for testing analytical skills. Else, it might lead to several undeserving students getting in."


Official speak

The acting Director, IIT Delhi, Surendra Prasad, is of the view that the new policy will ensure that students are able to devote duel attention to board exams along with preparing for entrance tests.

“This has been done to ensure that students do not neglect their board exams. When students become single-mindedly devoted and determined to get into IIT, their school attendance suffers. The tendency is to ignore the board exams and spend all the time in attending coaching classes and preparing for the JEE. The idea is to stop them from wasting their time, year after year, on the first attempt, the second, the third and so on. Ultimately, it is their life, but the students are also our future human resource. Which is why they should understand that there are so many things to do in life and making it to IIT need not be the only goal.”

Professor Prasad doesn’t agree that the new policy will increase the stress level on IIT aspirants.

“Rather, a single set of exams, instead of two, will reduce the stress level and students will now be able to devote their time for exploring other, equally interesting, avenues,” he adds.

— With inputs from Chetna Keer Banerjee in Chandigarh