Shiksha Opinion: Is the proposed change in IIT admission criteria good or bad?

IIT Council, chaired by HRD minister Smriti Irani, at its 48^th meeting held in Chennai on September 22, 2014, declared that it would be changing the JEE Advanced eligibility criteria “from the existing top 20 percentile to top 20 percentile or 75 per cent marks in the Class XII board exam, whichever is lower”.

Ashok Thakur, HRD ministry secretary further elaborated saying, “The council deliberated at length before deciding that in addition to the 20 percentile condition, it would offer another provision that candidates in the general, OBC-NCL (non-creamy layer) categories should score 75% in the Class 12 board exams and those in the SC/ST category and persons with disability should score 70%”.

This decision comes in response to the fact that last year many students who had cleared the JEE Advanced did not meet the top 20 percentile eligibility criteria in their respective boards and thus were not granted admission at the prestigious IITs. And these students (who were mostly from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu state boards) even took the matter to court.

So, our first question here is why are students made to go through such turmoil in the first place? The top 20 percentile eligibility criterion is flawed because it forces students to chase an unknown figure/marks/percentage so as to be eligible for admissions, even though they are intelligent enough to clear the JEE Advanced.

We are aware of the fact that the top 20 percentile criteria was incorporated in JEE because authorities wanted that students take their class 12 board exams seriously and prepare well for them. But if you look at the situation today, such additional criteria are only putting an unwanted pressure on students. And apart from that, students are getting more and more confused with each passing day on what the admission criteria for JEE Advanced actually is. Despite an excellent performance in the entrance exam they are not sure if they would be eligible for admissions or not.

Changes in admission criteria should really not be introduced every year. Primarily because doing this leads to confusion not only on part of the students but also for the conducting authorities as they do not have the experience or clarity to conduct the exam under the new set of rules. There is much confusion at the ground level and ideally before introducing such changes a complete insight should be given to teachers as well as students.

Currently, with these multiple criteria only one segment stands to gain which is the coaching centres, who would benefit from all the confusion being created and give out their own version of the rules and regulations.

The ideal situation then would be that IITs choose between the two, that is, either offer admission to students on the basis of their Class 12 results or on the basis of an admission test. The ultimate aim should be to evaluate whether a candidate has the aptitude to pursue the course they have on offer. These multiple criteria on the basis of which JEE ranks are decided  only lead to confusion and in many cases are not even fair to some candidates who sit for the examination.

So, our plea to the IIT Council is – please decide your action plan and clearly explain each and every aspect to the candidates, so that they can focus their attention on their preparation rather than living with fear  and uncertainty about whether they would make it to their dream colleges or not.