Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Photo By: Mohi Narayan
Scrapping JEE and AIEEE is no joke. To what extent is it justified? One needs to ponder over it. What necessitates replacement of JEE with ISEET? And, why is this proposal being pushed in such a hurry?
Ministry of HRD has grievances – much to state the unexplainable stress management – against the pattern of JEE. There, Kapil Sibbal poses, in volumes, about (ISEET) Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test. This new entrance exam, based on the lines of SAT, aims to unify multiple entrance examinations – not counting private engineering colleges which have yet not joined the “cause” as maintained by the minister – putting forth a question that how this step unifies the already hassle free AIEEE and JEE leaving aside hundreds of other entrance exams of different private institutes with a pair of ‘E’ at the end of their spellings.
Scrapping JEE and AIEEE is no joke. With such a step, one is deconstructing the gateways to the top institutions of the country, the IITs and the NITs. To what extent is it justified? The obvious reasons pointed out by Sibbal are as debatable as the ministry itself. One needs to ponder over it. What necessitates replacement of JEE with ISEET? Stress levels? Even the examinees hesitate to buy that. Doing away with multiple entrance exams? Bring private institutions under it.
Ignored by the ministry, India has been facing dilution of private institutions which could have stood tall with the IITs. The reasons are more obvious than those pointed out against JEE. Admissions are largely invited under the management quota for which parents pay gaily. Moreover, the government seems to be too ignorant to notice the ever increasing number of engineering colleges across the country – without proper structure and faculty – producing a mammoth pool of less competent engineers. Parents are ready to pay even for those. Education mafia in India has penetrated deep into the minds of the ignorant mass. And, everyone seem to have got accustomed with it. Needless to infer that the future awaits more unemployed youth.
The ministry, however, is obtuse about all other affairs and seems to be more concerned about scrapping JEE to reduce stress levels and to reduce number of coaching centers – another issue magically coined by them. The latter appears to be doubtful as advertisements of ISEET coaching have already been set afloat in the “markets”. The former, on the other hand, would lead us to one of the profound implications of introducing aptitude test in engineering entrance exams: the ministry must have had constructively planned to recruit new faculty at IITs and NITs who would indulge into teaching graphs and fundamentals of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics to the students possessed of aptitude. Faculty is yet another thorny issue that this front has been facing since years. Not just the IITs, almost all the Universities are malfunctioning in acute shortage of proper faculty.
There was no need to disturb the well established and the most reputed, oldest chain of educational institutions of the country. The ministry could have proposed recruitment of quality faculty or any step to raise the standards of private institutions would have been a much more sensible and appreciable effort. And, why this proposal is being pushed in such a hurry? It took the Janlokpal over 60 years and few fast unto death fiascos to come into light, after all.
12 Comments:
I would like to add some points to this article.
1. Reducing stress? Seriously, how exactly does combining two opportunities into a single aptitude test reduce stress? It increases the risk all the more.
2. I do not have any issues with the haste in which the proposal has been pushed. After all, that's how proposals should function. But yes, I honestly do not see any reason why ISEET would close down the business of the coaching centers.
And I am thankful to God that I entered and graduated from an IIT when they had the good old JEE.
Why fix something that isn't broken?
I agree too, How does scrapping two exams and making it one reduces stress?
As you pointed out, the important issue is about the faculty.
We do need a new entrance test. But not for students, for faculties instead.
May be more people will consider a job in education once salary and benefits to teachers of premier institutions increases.
Talking about education, there's something great happening in the world of open source online courses. MIT announced edx this month. Stanford already has coursera. May be this is the future. Here's the story
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2012/01/01/free-education-for-all-a-meme-whose-time-has-come/
I can see only one advantage of ISEET - that it would bring the engineering admission process in the country under a single umbrella, nothing else. Pressure will be the same (or might I say, even more) and number of coaching institutes will be the same or will increase. And why from 2013? Why not from 2014? What is happening with the brains of our "leaders"?
@Alok Exactly, it increases the risk.
@Shad.. I read it 3 days ago in a national daily and that inspired me to write this one. Surprisingly both the universities have already started facing rivalries in this arena while our best institutes continue to struggle.
@Robin.. Buddy! You got the point right! :D
My point is: India and Foreign countries are different. The people are different, the population and education systems are different. The mindset is different. Something that was a success there won't necessarily be good here.
@Soumya.. You're right. But, we are not talking about bringing the same changes here. We have just quoted a good example that should be appreciated.
Jee nd eee won't be scrapped....atleast dis yr....coz d head of IIT has strictly refused 2 do so....he said it'll continue as it has been done......
N i think Mr. Sibal shld stop playin' wid d carriers f lakh f children 4 his whimsical ideas....n shld nt degrade d quality f educ. in India more....n also shld ve sm mercy on 2013 batch.....coz its d same batch wid whom he experimented cce 10th board scrapping things....n things lyk ISEET sound good bt r hollow...........
Further more....Is d jee syllabus goin' 2 reduce...NO....in dat case dere ll be addtional burden 2 perform in xtra sub.lyk apptitude test.....n involment of boards marks is absolutely wrong....coz dere r many students who mug up d ans. widout knwing anythng abt d concept.....n moreover IITians\NITians ve 2 ve creative n imaginative not crammers.......
Good points, Meghna! HRD is indeed playing with the future of students. For once, the opinion of students must be considered before implementing such a proposal. What they feel about the whole stress management issue is more important than what HRD does.
Mohi,
Your post makes me remind of my prep times. Much has been discussed in the post and earlier comments.From my experiences, I would like to add
JEE was much much more than just a exam for cities Kota and to a large extent Patna. JEE literally runs the ecosystems of these cities.
Then we all have grown up hearing legendary stories of groups and institutions like Bansal Classes,Kota and Super 30 Patna. JEE literally defined these.
I wonder how these places and people along with the students ll adapt to the change.
Exactly Pranav. Sibbal is making these coaching institutes as the ground for change. But he is too myopic to foresee the upcoming Bansals and Super 30s for training ISEET aspirants.
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