IITs pitch for subjective JEE to improve student quality.
The new test will seek to evaluate the knowledge and analytical ability of aspiring students
New Delhi: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are planning to
switch to a subjective question-based test from the current
multiple-choice-based joint entrance examination (JEE) after criticism
over the deteriorating quality of students.
The new test will seek to evaluate the knowledge and analytical ability
of aspiring students. Critics of the current format, which comprises
two multiple-choice papers, include Infosys Ltd chairman emeritus N.R.
Narayana Murthy and other executives and alumni.
The move is
also being seen by some academicians as a compromise between the
government and the IITs over a common entrance exam for all engineering
schools. The government wants to conduct a nationwide objective-type
selection test for millions of students aspiring for such colleges,
including the IITs.
The IITs themselves now favour a two-tier
selection process, where the top rank holders in the objective test will
be eligible to appear for a final subjective question-based evaluation.
The human resource development (HRD) ministry has been informed about
the proposal to change the selection process by the senates of at least
the five older IITs. The senate is the highest decision-making body at
an IIT and comprises senior professors, the director and some outside
experts, including former students and executives.
“Selecting
students through an objective test is not the best way to get quality
students for institutes like IITs,” said Sanjeev Sanghi, president of
the IIT Delhi faculty forum. “We need to go back to the subjective
format.”
Murthy said at an IIT alumni meet in New York in
October last year that JEE coaching centres had led to the deteriorating
quality of students entering the colleges. “But their performance in
IITs, at jobs or when they come for higher education in institutes in
the US is not as good as it used to be,” he said. “This has to be
corrected. A new method of selection of students to IITs has to be
arrived at.”
While the top 20% of IITians can “stand among the
best anywhere in the world”, the quality of the remaining 80% wasn’t as
sound, Murthy had said.
The IITs insist though that changing the entrance format will have a significant impact on student quality.
The new test will seek to evaluate the knowledge and analytical ability of aspiring students
New Delhi: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are planning to switch to a subjective question-based test from the current multiple-choice-based joint entrance examination (JEE) after criticism over the deteriorating quality of students.
The new test will seek to evaluate the knowledge and analytical ability of aspiring students. Critics of the current format, which comprises two multiple-choice papers, include Infosys Ltd chairman emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy and other executives and alumni.
The move is also being seen by some academicians as a compromise between the government and the IITs over a common entrance exam for all engineering schools. The government wants to conduct a nationwide objective-type selection test for millions of students aspiring for such colleges, including the IITs.
The IITs themselves now favour a two-tier selection process, where the top rank holders in the objective test will be eligible to appear for a final subjective question-based evaluation.
The human resource development (HRD) ministry has been informed about the proposal to change the selection process by the senates of at least the five older IITs. The senate is the highest decision-making body at an IIT and comprises senior professors, the director and some outside experts, including former students and executives.
“Selecting students through an objective test is not the best way to get quality students for institutes like IITs,” said Sanjeev Sanghi, president of the IIT Delhi faculty forum. “We need to go back to the subjective format.”
Murthy said at an IIT alumni meet in New York in October last year that JEE coaching centres had led to the deteriorating quality of students entering the colleges. “But their performance in IITs, at jobs or when they come for higher education in institutes in the US is not as good as it used to be,” he said. “This has to be corrected. A new method of selection of students to IITs has to be arrived at.”
While the top 20% of IITians can “stand among the best anywhere in the world”, the quality of the remaining 80% wasn’t as sound, Murthy had said.
The IITs insist though that changing the entrance format will have a significant impact on student quality.
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