New JEE formula: Will Kapil Sibal still spoil the IIT-vintage?

The new IIT joint entrance exam (IIT JEE) formula agreed to by the IIT Council on Wednesday has brought some clarity on how the aspirants will be selected, but has left many questions unanswered. Although Kapil Sibal stayed away from the Council meeting to make it appear politically-neutral, he emerges successful in changing the existing system, against the fierce opposition by IITs like Delhi and Kanpur as well as by the nationwide coaching industry lobby. Whatever the earlier and revised formulae were, the summary is simple and clear: Class 12 board exam marks will now be important for gaining entry into the IITs. In the earlier formula that met with outright rejection, there was an attempt to give away a lot to the board marks while in the new formula, it has been reduced. This is how the new exam, pending finalisation and further clarifications by the Joint Admission Board (JAB) looks like: all aspirants who finish Class 12 will write a main exam; about 1.5 lakh of the top scorers of this exam will write another exam called the “advanced exam” after a gap of a few weeks. The top scorers of this advanced test will make it to the IIT, only if they belong to the top 20 percentile in their board exams. [caption id=“attachment_360138” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The new IIT joint entrance exam (IIT JEE) formula agreed to by the IIT Council on Wednesday has brought some clarity on how the aspirants will be selected. AFP”]  [/caption] Top 20 percentile? According to some estimates, a student who scored 78% in CBSE will fall into the top 20 percentile this year. So here are the two twists in the tale. One: at present there is only a single exam; now there will be two — a preliminary exam that filters out lower quality students and a final exam (pretty much similar to the civil services exam). Two: the toppers of the final exam should also have scored well in the board exam. This was more or less the principle that Sibal wanted to bring into the JEE when he originally proposed changes. He wanted to change the admission criteria so that it also took into account the board marks of the aspirants. The formula he tried was straight forward — 50:50. Now, it is not 50:50 or direct, but the board marks make a backdoor entry. Is the new system better than the earlier one proposed by Sibal and his HRD? Definitely yes. In the earlier formula, the HRD sought to give the board marks equal weightage giving rise to fears of dilution of the hallowed invincibility of the JEE. Since, most of the brand value of the IITs rode on its students, which in fact was a representation of the tough entrance test, IIT managements, faculties and alumni were firm in their resistance. There were also fears that allowing the state board marks to dilute the eligibility criteria was fraught with huge risks because there were a large number of state boards and there was absolutely no guarantee against possible malpractices in their exams. In other words, genuinely meritorious students will be at a huge disadvantage if students who score well through possible malpractice are allowed entry. Or the JAB will be dealing with an eligibility criterion that they can no longer control. There were also misgivings that the new system would affect the chances of rural students who don’t have access to good schools. This argument, put forward largely by coaching centres in Kota and Patna, said that rural students do not score well in board exams because of poor schools, but fare well in the entrance test because of their training. What is the main purpose of the revised system? The biggest impact will be on the coaching industry because they will have to change their strategy of cracking the JEE and include training for the board exams as well. Some experts say that this is no big deal because most of the IIT rankers do well in their board exams and will naturally fall in the top 20 percentile as demanded by the revised scheme. It is not clear if there are hidden interests in the doggedness of the HRD to change the existing scheme. The alleged possible motives of the earlier scheme were definitely more accent on school education and hence more privatisation; and an altered emphasis on coaching, which couldn’t have gone against the coaching industry because the demand for IIT-admissions is non-depreciating. Or, perhaps there was genuine interest in changing the present system which gave a go-by to school education. In a way, leaving some space for genuine school education will not hurt because many coaching centres advise their students to shun school classes in favour of their classes. Big coaching centre chains have already taken over the classrooms of many private schools in the country. However, many questions are still unanswered and will be clearer only in the coming days. One of them is if the “one nation, one test” formula is still valid or if the JEE will be used as a test to select aspirants for NITs and other engineering colleges as well. At the moment, NITs select their candidates through a separate AIEEE exam. A single test is not a great idea because it clearly denies the students chances to improve their performance. At the moment, the top technical institutions in the country such as IITs, BITS and NITs run separate entrance examinations with sufficient gap in between. These tests vary in complexion and give extra chances for a candidate if he/she does badly in a test on a particular day. Then, there are other entrance examinations by state and private universities that offer a wider opportunity, in terms of number of attempts, to students. If even a tennis match offers three attempts to improve one’s chances, why should Sibal decide that an one-time attempt should be enough to decide the future of millions of Indian students? On the outcome of Wednesday’s decision, Sibal has reportedly said that his objectives were reducing dependance on coaching, giving importance to Class 12 marks and reducing the multiplicity of exams, and eliminating capitation fee. This is wishful, and partly flawed thinking. Wishful because — one, coaching will never stop no matter what anybody does because India is a country with very limited avenues for quality and affordable education; capitation fee will never disappear because it is taken in black and it is always politicians or their cronies and businessmen (realtors, traders, contractors etc) who establish most of India’s private engineering colleges. They don’t do it if there is no big money. Flawed thinking because multiplicity of exams is not a bad idea since it gives students a second, third or fourth chance. For tens of millions of Indians, education is the only escape from their drudgery. Kapil Sibal should have asked the students first. Editor’s note: One is still not clear if the JAB will decide to mix the board marks and the IIT score to decide the final rank as some exam boards do. In such a case, it will be an altogether different ballgame. It is quite unlikely though.