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JEE needs wider reach

The Indian Institutes of Technology have a hard-won reputation for conducting what is, arguably, the most demanding undergraduate entrance exam in the world. Reforms to the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) to make it more accessible to all sections of students naturally evoke wide interest. Less than three per cent of applicants gain entry into the IIT system, placing it higher than American Ivy League universities such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the success rate ranges from 10 to 16 per cent. In the current year, about 4,000 candidates among nearly 200,000 who took the JEE screening test were accepted. The integrity of the selection process as well as the quality of student input into the IIT B.Tech system is internationally acknowledged. However, the limited success of some categories of applicants — rural and socially disadvantaged groups, especially Dalits, and women — continues to pose a challenge to the framers of admission policy. The extreme odds against candidates succeeding in the JEE have spawned a private coaching industry that puts a tremendous burden on students and may also have the effect of widening the divide. Against this background, the IIT Council's decision to make JEE 2006 an objective-type test of comprehension and analytical abilities does mark a bold initiative. The proposed changes must be made comprehensible to the teachers of mathematics, physics, and chemistry in the mainstream school system. This is particularly important as the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) wants to give greater importance to the school-leaving examination.

The intense competition for B.Tech seats in the seven IIT campuses speaks well of the huge demand for quality education in technology and, to an extent, science. More aspirants can get entry if the MHRD quickly upgrades the seven institutions it has identified (two each in Hyderabad and West Bengal, the Aligarh Muslim University, IT-BHU, Varanasi, and Cochin University) to meet IIT benchmarks. It is reckoned that, as a rule each year, some 15,000 JEE-takers will qualify for admission to quality institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom — yet they cannot make it to an IIT. A serious effort must be made to involve leading business houses with a sense of social responsibility in the project of upgrading more institutions to IIT standards. JEE reform must go hand in hand with the reform of teaching methods in schools. The Central Board of Secondary Education, which conducts the All India Engineering Entrance Examination, recognised the need to improve its curriculum early enough. In consequence, the success rate of CBSE students in the JEE tends to be high. The apprehension is that some other measures announced by the IIT Council, such as restricting the number of test attempts to two and prescribing a minimum eligibility score of 60 per cent (55 per cent for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates), will have the effect of narrow-casting, rather than broadening access to, the JEE. If this is correct, such restrictions must be given up. With its estimable track record and credibility, the JEE could well become the test of choice for admission to all technology institutions.

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