IIT Kanpur faculty and students slam new JEE
Recently, IIT Kanpur handed out awards to its meritorious students at the 44th convocation ceremony. However, the students were not very happy because they feel that the HRD Ministry is meddling with the quality of IIT education by forcefully thrusting a new joint entrance test on IITs from 2013. They feel that any change to the system that is foolproof and time-tested will only mean degradation of the rigorous standards of JEE and IITs. Besides, students also feel that the proposed statistical formula is not good enough to normalize marks of different education boards across India. Read more
The students who have raised objections on JEE 2013, include:
- Shubhayu Chatterjee, Ankit Kumar and Ashish Gupta, who have won the President's gold medal this year,
- Tej Pratap, who has been awarded the Director’s gold medal,
- Abhinav Prateek, who has won Ratan Swarup memorial prize, and
- Parnika Agrawal, who has received General Proficiency award and Batra gold medal.
The Student Gymkhana of IIT Kanpur and IIT-K faculty members have their reservations about the new JEE too. See details
IIT Kanpur faculty federation has already stated that the new format should be given more thought and implemented only in 2014. The nod of IIT Council is being seen as a ‘breach of trust’ by them as the details about the content and processes of the new JEE format has not yet begun.
See how IIT controversy continues after HRD gave nod to new JEE 2013 on May 28
The advice and decisions of IIT Kanpur senate had been ignored in the process. According to it, the new test is not well-planned and if implemented in a hurry, it can prove to be a national disaster. Besides, a single test for all may not only increase stress levels of the students but will also be unfair on account of contingent uncertainties.
IIT-K faculty has excused that the HRD is trying to force the move to hog the limelight for reforms credit, even though it is just making students the victims of unfair and unjust procedures.
The IIT Alumni Association is opposing the HRD move too and has decided to file a petition in the court against the decision.
