IIT agrees to bare JEE marks, but only just

Insists On Hard Copy That Makes Detecting Anomalies ‘Impossible’ Manoj Mitta | TNN New Delhi: Stung by the exposure of admission anomalies in recent years, the IIT system has come up with an innovative method of blocking transparency even as it agreed to give data under RTI on the marks obtained by the four lakh candidates in this year’s joint entrance examination (JEE). It insisted on giving the data only in the hard copy running into hundreds of thousands of pages rather than in the more convenient form of a CD. The information seeker, Rajeev Kumar, a computer science professor in IIT Kharagpur, is crying foul. For, the hard copy would not only result in a steep increase in the cost of information (running into six figures) but also make it almost impossible for him to detect irregularities in the latest JEE as he did in the three previous ones by analyzing the electronic data that had then by given to him under RTI. As a result of this change in the strategy of the IIT system, central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi fixed a hearing for November 6 specially to resolve this soft vs hard debate. The hearing follows the unusual reasons given by Gautam Barua, director of IIT Guwahati and overall incharge of JEE 2009, for his failure to comply with the CIC’s disclosure direction passed on July 30. In his first mail to CIC on October 2, Barua said that as there were a number of RTI applications seeking the CD, “we are apprehensive that this request for electronic data is to profit from it by using it for IIT JEE coaching purposes (planning, targeting particular cities, population segments, etc).” The reference to the coaching institutes is reminiscent of the recent controversy over the move to raise the bar on 12th class marks to be eligible for IIT selection. Asserting that IITs had “nothing to hide regarding the results”, Barua said “we are ready to show the running of the software with the original data to the CIC, if it so desires.” As a corollary, Barua made an issue of the fact that Kumar “has not asked to see the data, but he wants an electronic version delivered to him. Why is this so?” Faculty to accept new pay structure The stand-off between the IIT faculty and the government over the “anomalies” in pay structure finally ended on Saturday with the teachers’ body deciding to accept the new package in the “interest” of the institutes, but maintained that concerns still remain. The All India IIT Faculty Federation asked the teachers of the seven IITs to agree to the new pay structure. “We have requested the faculty to accept the pay package in the interest of the IIT system. But we will pursue with the HRD ministry and the board of governors of the IITs on certain issues till they are resolved,” federation president M Thenmozhi said. AGENCIES

Plus 2 marks may decide your selection in IIT

New Entrance Scheme Likely To Start In 2011

D Suresh Kumar | TNN

Chennai: Marks scored in the Plus Two board examinations are likely to become a key determining factor in addition to performance in the nervewracking Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission into the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) by 2011.

In a few months, a pan-IIT committee, formed by the Union HRD ministry to suggest reforms to JEE, is expected to submit its report recommending ways to factor in the marks scored by students in higher secondary examinations while preparing the IIT merit list. A meeting of all IIT directors and JEE representatives in Chennai over the weekend discussed the proposed changes.

“We hope to devise a methodology to compute a normalised Plus Two cut-off eligibility score for each educational board (CBSE, ICSE, and State Boards). If it’s approved, then only students who have scored this cut-off mark would become eligible to appear for JEE,’’ IIT Madras deputy director V G Idichandy, who is heading the committee, said on Monday.

The present eligibility norm of an aggregate score of 60% in Plus Two determined by the IIT standing council, as opposed to 85% recommended by a JEE review committee four years ago, is considered too poor a benchmark. The move comes in the backdrop of widespread concern among top academicians over the current IIT admission system, which is entirely dependent on JEE scores and ignores the board examination results.

The inherent weakness of such a system is that IITs have been able to largely attract only students “conditioned for JEE’’ by high-profile coaching centres in Kota and Hyderabad. Such students who lack “raw intelligence’’, as described by IIT Madras director M S Ananth, are at times at sea after entering the campus.

“We are collecting data on Plus Two results of the past four to five years from different boards in all states to base our recommendation on. Much will depend on how we compute an acceptable method to normalise the marks scored in different boards. You have nearly 40 boards of education in India,’’ Prof Idichandy said.

However, the even more difficult part is to convince authorities of all the boards to declare Plus Two results within a specified time-frame every academic year.

“This will be crucial for us as we have to base JEE on Plus Two results. This is where a common school board, at least at the level of higher secondary education, which has been proposed by HRD minister Kapil Sibal, will help in determining any all-India merit list,’’ he said.

Idichandy acknowledged JEE can’t be abolished “but we want to give as much importance as possible to the performance of students at the school level’’ in IIT admissions.