The Reform IIT Syndrome
Now, the news is that the second divisioners can't even compete for IIT JEE. While the powers that be sure have their reasons, in some way, this actually strikes at the very spirit of the most democratizing competitive exam in India.
It didn't matter where you were from, what you scored in XII or whether you could afford a Rs 50,000 coaching in a metro or one of those sub-metro IIT factories. All it mattered was if you could solve those from-the-galactic-space problems. And people did. People from all types of segments imaginable. I had son's of professors, scientists, bureaucrats, rickshawpullers, labourers, stamp-vendors, govt clerks as my classmates at Kharagpur. There were people from Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pilibhit, Phulparas, Bankura and any conceivable corner of India imaginable. And there were state toppers, NTSE scholars, Mathematical Olympiad winners and "Complete academic-disasters before IIT-JEE". The exam was a great leveller - all that mattered was your guts and glory in those 3 hours.
Yes, that was the truth even though too much of coaching, forced and directed learning, parental pressure and expectations were there. Probably, it was easy for some people with better means - guidance in Delhi was always better than that available in Sitapur. But even then, whether you did your plus 2 from Delhi or UP didn't matter. You had to perform - that was the bottomline.
Now it has changed. People who have seen it will know that scoring 60% in State Boards is not the same as scoring 60% in CBSE - lets not get into finding the equivalent in CBSE of 60% scored in a State Board - suffices it to say that all Board exams are not equal and its a phenomenon thats not controlled by IITs. So why introduce a dependency on an unctontrolled process for something that has been as fair and as unrelenting and as well acclaimed as the veritable IIT-JEE. Guess the wise men know better.
Cap on number of attempts as 2 is still defendable - though it also pre-empts the career decision that should ideally be made by the aspirant. Why not let the market forces decide if wasting more than 2 years is worthy enough for an IIT degree.
And change in curriculum and change in examination format to completely objective test - well am not too sure how that is going to help remove the scourge of coaching from the scene. What I do know is that the model of solving 5 problems in 2 hours - time was never the issue - whether you could do it or not was the core - worked really well for the kind of raw, analytical, scientific talent that the IITs pined for.
What I compeletely fail to understand is the tendency of our governments/administrators/admin-bodies to meddle with academic models that have been doing exceptionally well. A couple of years back, there was this Physics prof of an HRD minister who was hell bent on reducing fees of IIMs - that too - when the process for getting an education loan for an IIM student is much easier than what you'd have to follow to get a post-paid mobile connection or open a bank account - let alone getting a credit card. And now we have this overzealous IIT-governing body hell bent on tweaking and turning and fitting and retro-fitting and modifying a machine thats working as well as the IIT test-admit-educate-graduate structure.
God give them the wisdom to know what they are doing or me the insensitivity to remain unruffled at such things.
It didn't matter where you were from, what you scored in XII or whether you could afford a Rs 50,000 coaching in a metro or one of those sub-metro IIT factories. All it mattered was if you could solve those from-the-galactic-space problems. And people did. People from all types of segments imaginable. I had son's of professors, scientists, bureaucrats, rickshawpullers, labourers, stamp-vendors, govt clerks as my classmates at Kharagpur. There were people from Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pilibhit, Phulparas, Bankura and any conceivable corner of India imaginable. And there were state toppers, NTSE scholars, Mathematical Olympiad winners and "Complete academic-disasters before IIT-JEE". The exam was a great leveller - all that mattered was your guts and glory in those 3 hours.
Yes, that was the truth even though too much of coaching, forced and directed learning, parental pressure and expectations were there. Probably, it was easy for some people with better means - guidance in Delhi was always better than that available in Sitapur. But even then, whether you did your plus 2 from Delhi or UP didn't matter. You had to perform - that was the bottomline.
Now it has changed. People who have seen it will know that scoring 60% in State Boards is not the same as scoring 60% in CBSE - lets not get into finding the equivalent in CBSE of 60% scored in a State Board - suffices it to say that all Board exams are not equal and its a phenomenon thats not controlled by IITs. So why introduce a dependency on an unctontrolled process for something that has been as fair and as unrelenting and as well acclaimed as the veritable IIT-JEE. Guess the wise men know better.
Cap on number of attempts as 2 is still defendable - though it also pre-empts the career decision that should ideally be made by the aspirant. Why not let the market forces decide if wasting more than 2 years is worthy enough for an IIT degree.
And change in curriculum and change in examination format to completely objective test - well am not too sure how that is going to help remove the scourge of coaching from the scene. What I do know is that the model of solving 5 problems in 2 hours - time was never the issue - whether you could do it or not was the core - worked really well for the kind of raw, analytical, scientific talent that the IITs pined for.
What I compeletely fail to understand is the tendency of our governments/administrators/admin-bodies to meddle with academic models that have been doing exceptionally well. A couple of years back, there was this Physics prof of an HRD minister who was hell bent on reducing fees of IIMs - that too - when the process for getting an education loan for an IIM student is much easier than what you'd have to follow to get a post-paid mobile connection or open a bank account - let alone getting a credit card. And now we have this overzealous IIT-governing body hell bent on tweaking and turning and fitting and retro-fitting and modifying a machine thats working as well as the IIT test-admit-educate-graduate structure.
God give them the wisdom to know what they are doing or me the insensitivity to remain unruffled at such things.
posted by Prashant @ 10:51 AM
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