JEE compromise may hurt engg aspirants
The HRD Minister has put his foot down to launch the new CET in 2013 itself. The compromise formula he has come up with has turned out to be a greater devil than the previously proposed entrance exam for the engineering aspirants. The new formula states that only top 20% students in their respective Class XII boards will be eligible to sit for the IIT entrance exam. Read more
Earlier, SIbal had proposed that both board exam percentile and the screening test (Main exam) will be given equal weightage to consider students for the Advance exam for the IITs. This formula would have given a chance to the students with lower scores in the boards to make up by performing better in the Main exam. But the IIT faculty had been persistently against giving weightage to Class XII board marks.
It is not likely that class 12 results throughout India will be declared in time for CET 2013. Hence, all the students will have to appear for both the Main and Advance exams, even though 80 per cent of them will eventually turn out to be ineligible for the Advance exam later.
Sibal also said that he is open to suggestions from IITs about the new format. See details
Here are some of the points Kapil Sibal puts in favour of the new CET:
- IIT JEE has led to the ever-declining focus of students on school education. According to a study by IIT Bombay, out of 476 admitted to the institution, 300 were from various coaching centres. It means that the students came from urban backgrounds and were children of parents who could afford coaching for their students. Girls often do better in boards and yet, there are few girls in IITs. If school board results were any indication, there should be more girls in IITs.
- When students sit for 30 different exams, they have to pay as much capitation fee and security deposits, which can be quite overwhelming for poor parents. One exam for all negates it altogether.
- The new CET is consistent with international standards. In America, the board level exam determines admission to the best colleges including Harvard and MIT. Similarly, in England, ‘A’ level determines admission of a student into best colleges including those of Oxford and Cambridge. In China too, 90 lakh students sit for just one national exam.
- Indian government policy of 1986 had idealized one national exam for all. But we have failed to implement it as yet.
- The entrance exam of IITs is not controlled by individual IITs but by their Joint Admissions Board (JAB). Moreover, the Council is in control of JEE for all the IITs, according to the ordinance. In the new system too, JAB of the IITs will set up the Advance exam or final step to the admission to the IITs. Hence, there is no question about undermining the autonomy of the IITs.
- The statistical institute has worked out a formula on percentile basis to ensure that students of a particular board do not get advantage over students of other education boards. The formula has been tested on four different boards for past four years and complete equalization has been observed.
- The new CET was not conjured up in a jiffy. It took two and half years to devise a system of single entrance examination which is a part of the National Education Policy 1986.
- All the IITs and state ministers have unanimously accepted the new CET, with the exception of IIT Kanpur senate. They too do not object to the formula but to its implementation. More about Sibal’s views
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