Entrance exams unnecessary

The idea of entrance exams for graduate course in Delhi University <s>s</a>  must be treated as a no-no. As it is, students passing out of schools have enough entrance exams to sit for without adding any more to them. Also, what is the purpose of a board examination if it does not even serve as a benchmark for colleges to judge you by? The university might argue that the board marks as they are at the moment do not adequately serve the purpose. There is some merit in the argument, but the answer cannot be to keep adding on exams. The solution then lies in demanding a revamp of the board exams to ensure that marks better reflect academic attainment or ability. 

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Advance IIT joint entrance exam under new format on June 2

New Delhi: The Advance Joint Entrance Examination 2013 for admission to the undergraduate programme in IITs under the new format will be held on June 2 after the Mains on April 7.

The Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IITs, the body comprising IIT heads, is understood to have approved the dates at a meeting today, officials said.

The exam next year would be conducted by IIT-Delhi and HC Gupta would be the chairman of the organising committee.

The JAB had on August 5 approved the common entrance test for admission to the undergraduate programme for 2013 based on percentile ranking.

The new format adopted by the IIT council comprises a two-tier system - a main and an advance test. Students clearing the advance test after being screened in the Mains would be considered for admission provided they are among the top 20 percentile in their boards.

The logistics for both the exam will be conducted by CBSE. The advance exam will be solely conducted by the IIT.

Prime Minister's remarks at Golden Jubilee Convocation of IIT Bombay

Mumbai: Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh addressed the Golden Jubilee Convocation of IIT Bombay in Mumbai today. Following is the text of Prime Minister’s Speech:
“I am delighted to be here at your prestigious institution on this auspicious day. I wish each one you a life of purposive action and professional fulfillment. Standing here this afternoon, my thoughts go back to those early days after Independence when our national leaders built great institutions of learning to help lay the foundations of a new India. The Indian Institutes of Technology were part of this great nation building effort. I salute the memory of all those who dedicated their lives to building this and other such great institutions of academic excellence.
The IITs have become an integral constituent of what is known as ‘Brand India’, like our nuclear science institutions, that Dr Kakodkar has dedicated his life to, like Mr Premji’s Wipro and Mr. Narayanamurthy's Infosys and like so many other centres of research and teaching that have given several generations of young Indians new opportunities that my own generation could only dream of.
Today, as we celebrate the Golden Jubilee of IIT Bombay, we feel a sense of pride. But that pride must be tempered by the concern that we still do not have the required number of such institutions to offer adequate developmental opportunities to all our bright young women and men.
Every year when I see how many hundreds of thousands of students apply for admission to these institutions, and when I see how high have become the minimum cut-off marks for admission, my heart is pained by the limits we are placing on the opportunities available to our youth.
That is precisely why our government took the initiative to expand the opportunities for higher and technical education in India. During the last eight years Indian higher education, as well as secondary and technical education, have experienced a quantum jump in terms of the investment being made and the number of seats being created for students. I compliment my colleague Shri Kapil Sibal for leading this effort.
Our government has opened new IITs, new IIMs and new institutions for teaching and research in the sciences. We have increased investment in school education. We have increased scholarships for the disadvantaged sections of our society.
I am happy that IIT Bombay has made research a priority. I am told that a number of centres in the institute are engaged in research on several important areas. These include the National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education, the 1 Megawatt National Solar Thermal Test Facility and the Indo-US Clean Energy Centre for Photovoltaics. I am sure these efforts will result in very useful outcomes.
As India’s economy becomes bigger and more developed, so too must our knowledge base. A developing country like ours has to catch up with other more developed nations and this ‘catch-up’ process depends vitally on our ability to harness human resources for development.
Another challenge is to ensure that the investment we make in higher education in fact contributes more directly to nation building. Here the IITs face an immediate challenge of making their curriculum more relevant to our needs. I am aware that this is a subject of much lively discussion among your faculty and alumnus. How do we incentivize our engineering graduates to bring their professional knowledge to bear more directly on our development processes? This would be in keeping with the vision for IITs that Pandit Nehru articulated when he laid the foundation stone of IIT Bombay. He said, that the role of the IITs would be, and I quote, “to provide scientists and technologists of the highest caliber who would engage in research, design and development to help building the nation toward self reliance in her technological needs”.
Many of our best IIT students have, over the years, migrated abroad in search of better opportunities. I do not grudge that. Some of them have returned home to serve our Motherland. Some do so from where they are, in some of the best institutions of the world. A large number of our IIT graduates move away from their core disciplines into management, finance, marketing and even the civil services. Without doubt, they have much to contribute in their new fields of work.
The students graduating today have a long list of IIT Bombay alumni to inspire them. Each of the preceding 49 Convocations of this great institution has seen the graduation of a very talented group of young men and women. They have made important contributions in a wide range of disciplines and have added lustre to the global image of India. Several of them have risen to top positions internationally including Arun Netravali, former head of Bell Laboratories, and Nitin Nohria, the current Dean of Harvard Business School. One of our brightest Cabinet Ministers, Shri Jairam Ramesh is an alumnus of IIT Bombay, as is Shri Nandan Nilekani who carries the enormous responsibility of implementing India’s ambitious programme for providing all its citizens with a Unique Identification number.
India needs millions of engineers and millions more of technically qualified workers and skilled professionals. There was a time when engineers like M. Vishwesharayya and K. L. Rao provided leadership to our power projects and irrigation projects and were regarded as national leaders. Today India needs national leaders from the fields of engineering and science. Not just politics, sport and cinema!
Friends, India is on the move. And so, you enter a world of opportunities. How you make use of these opportunities, how you shape them, how you create new opportunities for newer generations of our youth will shape the future of this ancient land.
I know that in the recent past we have lived through a period of excessive pessimism and negativism. Some of this is natural. Our society has been experiencing a ‘revolution of rising expectations’. Hopes are high, but are often not realized. This breeds cynicism. The challenge before you is to retain your sense of hope and optimism even as you surmount the hurdles you face and overcome the challenges that are posed.
When I look back at my own life I am humbled and gratified by the distance my generation has travelled. I studied in the light of a kerosene lamp in a dusty village that had no power, no school or college. I had to walk miles to school. In all these matters, there has been an enormous improvement in the 65 years of independent India. Even then, the progress that has been registered has often fallen short of the expectations of our people, particularly the youth. In some ways, the enormity of the task ahead of us as a nation is daunting, but our achievements so far give us confidence and hope.
India’s journey, as indeed IIT Bombay’s journey, these past 65 years, is a matter of great pride. After half a century of zero rate of economic growth, from 1900 to 1950, we managed to register 3.5 per cent growth for three decades after Independence, from 1950 to 1980. But from 1980 to now, over the subsequent three decades, we have nearly doubled that rate of growth. In 2003-08 we showed that we can march forward at an even higher rate of growth of 9.0 per cent.
These are not just numbers. They translate into employment opportunities for newer generations. They create new incomes and new possibilities. They help increase the government’s revenues so that we can invest more in education, in health care, in eradicating poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy.
I know that in the past year India's economy has slowed down. But this is not an inevitable or irreversible outcome. The fundamentals of our economy are sound and with greater effort being made to mobilize all the latent physical and human resources, we can go back to the growth rate of 8 to 9 percent per annum achieved from 2003 to 2008. The large investments in the development of human resources that we have made in the last 8 years would facilitate that outcome.
Science and technology have to play a major role in the transformation of our economy. The educated youth of our country have to lead the process of social and economic change. I am confident that young people like you will take the flag from our hands and march forward. I am confident that your generation will make us proud. I am confident about the future of India, because YOU are that future.
As you enter a new phase of your life never forget those who have made it possible for you to be here today. Your parents, your family and friends, your teachers and the society around you that has enabled you to receive good quality education and build the foundation of your professional life.

New IIT JEE Pattern from 2013

New Patterns Highlights!

• Two Exams – JEE Mains followed by JEE Advance
• Time gap between these two exams will be two to three weeks.
• JEE Main which is equivalent to AIEEE and will be conduced by CBSE, JAB and JIC will also support in this.
• JEE Advance which is equivalent to IIT JEE will be conducted by IITs (JAB and JIC); with the same composition as at present
• Only top 1,50,000 students including all categories from JEE Main will be able to appear in JEE Advance
• Students who come in top 20 percentile in their board can only give the exams.

Admissions to IITs will be based only on category wise All India Rank (AIR) in JEE ADVANCED
Admission in other deemed universities who take admission on the basis of AIEEE will be based on JEE Main exam. Min %age criteria will be fixed for these too.
Final Decision is pending. Still few IIT Faculties are questioning the requirement of changing to new pattern.

This section suggested that the JEE exam pattern should remain same with 2 changed.

1. Eligibility for appearing in IIT JEE exam to be changed from current 60% marks to percentile rank. JAB has to release the cut-off rank after declaration of boards result.

2. Counselling and allotment should be held jointly with NITs and IIITs

Anyone worried about what’s wrong with our education?

The debate on the IIT entrance examination refuses to die down. Some IITs claim that the standards will be diluted if the criteria are changed to consider school marks, while the HRD ministry disagrees. Most of the candidates are likely to enter the IIT irrespective of the mode of selection. Alas! JEE has long been defeated by the coaching factories. Those who live in regions that are close to the successful coaching factories have joined the IITs in hundreds. The best-coached students seem to be the most eligible ones to study at IIT. In this situation, an alternative way of selecting students appears relevant.

It's rarely the same individual who scores the highest in school, in JEE, IIT, CAT or IIM, lands the highest paying job and goes on to become the most successful professional. There are not many school toppers among our most successful managers or engineers. JEE ranks do not correlate well with the academic performances at IITs. Rarely has the JEE topper finished first in the BTech programme.

A far more serious question is how the "engineers" are occupied after college? Many seek MBA; a few go to US universities (IITs are not popular for post-graduation). Jobs are sought in the finance sector, "core sector" and IT (the largest recruiter of engineering graduates). Now, the core sector does not actually offer technical jobs. Managing production, procuring materials and chasing people for unfinished work are typical tasks. The engineer does not create products. Indian engineers may have put power plants or created railway infrastructure in African and West Asian countries but, in the sphere of product development, our record is dismal. In the first 35 years we bought, copied (with or without permission) and turned out the same products, decade after decade. Even after liberalization in the 90s, new products were rarely developed in India.

If the primary occupation of the engineer should be creation, design and development of new products, then the very existence of engineering education in this country looks purposeless. Any general education and training will be enough to manage shop floors and purchasing and to do most of the software jobs. IIMs want a 'eterogeneous' mix of graduates in their classes. Why are we, then, obsessed with engineering education?

There is an even more fundamental issue regarding education. The British system of schooling in India started in the 19th century, probably with the aim of creating clerical manpower for the East India Company. It progressed to create civil servants, too, but the primary purpose of education to serve "people of other countries" seems to continue! Most of the work in IT companies is to develop software for developed countries. Dull and boring jobs are dumped on us in the belief that money is the prime motivator here while essential services fail to attract people since they pay less.

There is no visible concern over shrinking labour and lands for agriculture and vanishing traditional craftsmen. Free lunch is offered to increase enrollment in schools but there is indifference to reports that children cannot read the headlines of a vernacular newspaper and cannot subtract even two-digit numbers. They learn little in the schools and miss out on learning any trade or craft that can fetch them a livelihood. Once i said to some urban college students, "Ninety per cent of the students seem disinterested in the classroom, at any level." They replied that i had underestimated the percentage! Are we then thrusting a whole lot of uninteresting stuff down the throats of millions of youngsters? What for? To receive the education that would fetch employment to serve the aliens?

Shouldn't we seek alternatives? Can we reduce the wage disparity between those who work with their hands and those who do 'mental' work? How do we bring about dignity of labour in this country? A Japanese guru of quality spoke about the "joy of sweating". Our society, too, had that joy. Why did we lose it to the pleasure of air-conditioned offices to do dumb jobs? Can we nurture those who enjoy working with their hands and not force them to learn by rote? How can we enable each individual to pursue an occupation according to one's aptitude?

I do not have answers to the multitude of questions that i have raised but my concerns remain. Will our policy-makers, planners and educationists take a re-look at the path we have travelled so far, do an honest analysis and re-define the goals of human resource development in this country? Maybe we are late but let us proceed on the assumption "better late than never".

Advance JEE to be held on June 2 next year

KANPUR: The Advance Joint Entrance Exam-2013 would be held on June 2 next year. The blueprint of the conduct of the exam has been prepared in IIT Delhi. The students appearing in this Advanced JEE would be getting a chance to take admission in IITs, IT-BHU and ISM-Dhanbad.

The Joint Admission Board (JAB) has accepted the percentile based formula for conducting the JEE in 2013. Deliberation in this regard was held during the JAB meeting held in Delhi on Sunday.

The IIT-JEE aspirants will be required to appear in a screening test first. Those who will qualify will be given an opportunity to sit in the Advanced JEE. The students will be tested upon their knowledge in Physics, Chemistry and Maths. The exam would be held in two shifts as it was held in JEE-2012. The questions will be objective in nature. The duration for each paper would be three hours.

It is also important to mention that the exam would be held under the aegis of IIT system. The IITs will only hold academic and administration rights to interfere in the exam, if need be.

IIT exam row resolved, new format from 2013

NEW DELHI: Ending a month-long row over introduction of a common entrance test (CET) for undergraduate engineering courses, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) on Wednesday arrived at a compromise, whereby class XII scores are used to select candidates, while the tech schools continue to conduct their own admission tests.
The new format is expected to make entrance in to the top tech schools tougher, but has emerged as a half-way house between the HRD ministry keen on increasing the importance of board exams and IITs not wanting to cede their autonomy.

• According to the new formula, agreed to at a meeting of the IIT Council, all aspirants will give the JEE-Main exam. Of the approximately 12 lakh candidates, only the top 1.5 lakh will qualify to appear for the JEE-Advanced test. The two tests will be held on separate days within four-six weeks of each other.

All 1.5 lakh students will be given a score and an All India Rank. However, they will be selected for IITs not just on the basis of their rank in the Advanced test but also their board marks. For this, students will have to in the top 20 percentile of their state or central board.
So going by last year's scores, the cut-off percentage for a student appearing in CBSE board will be 78%, while for one appearing in the Uttar Pradesh state board will be 65%-66%. This is expected to standardize varying standards across central and state boards.
The compromise does seem laboured but this is what IITs will have to settle for. The original government proposal, backed by the IIT Council, drew flak for messing the admission format without achieving the professed objective of reducing dependence on tuitions.
The ministry's plan to introduce `one nation, one test' has been only partially fulfilled although the new format means board scores will reflect in a candidate's selection. On May 28, the IIT Council had announced that entrance for IIT will be based on a new format replacing the 60% cut-off for school marks with a 50:50 weightage on the class XII score and JEE Main. The merit list for IIT was to be based on the Advance test. The formula for centrally funded engineering institutions, including NITs and IIITs, was 40% weightage to class XII score and 30% weightage each for JEE Main and Advanced.
The Council's decision and consequently its powers have been challenged by IIT-Kanpur and Delhi Senates in the last few weeks with the institutes declaring they will hold their own entrance tests.
HRD minister Kapil Sibal did not attend Wednesday's meeting though he is chairman of the Council. Sources said his absence was intended to send out a message that there was no political interference in IIT's decision-making process.
Reacting to the IIT Council decision, Sibal said, ``There is still a long way to go but I'm sure that all stakeholders will work towards reducing influence of coaching institutes, give importance to school board exams, bring down the multiple exams and ensure there is no occasion for charging capitation fee...The present decision is a step in the right direction. I don't think the Council has achieved all four things but I hope it will be able to in the next three-four years."

 

 

 

The Councils of NITs and IIITs will also mei today. They have supported it."

All India IIT Faculty Federation A K Mittal said that the proposal should be brought before the Senates. ``We have no resbe brought before the senates for their approval," he said.