Change for the 5th time in offing not good, say experts
The JEE system has been changed nearly four times in the last 20 years with another change scheduled next year.
Hyderabad: In the last two decades, a candidate scheduled to sit for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) two years later has never known if the exam patter will change or remain the same.
The JEE system has been changed nearly four times in the last 20 years, with another change scheduled next year.
The Union HRD Ministry-appointed committee is expected to submit its final recommendations on having a single entrance test for admission to both IITs and NITs this month.
The government may shift to the ‘one exam, one rank, one counselling’ slogan though it is certain that the 12th Standard marks weightage is on its way out.
With the JEE system waiting for its fifth change in two decades, experts feel it is not a good idea to keep changing things every now and then. Former IIT Kanpur director and current director of the Mahindra École Centrale College of Engineering here, said, “We shouldn’t be changing things as fast as they are doing now. It is not at all desirable. Many times, there was no need for changes but still the government went ahead.”
These changes were also due to the IITs and the HRD Ministry constantly thinking about the coaching market. “IITs should think about what their mandate is. But instead of that they are reacting to the markets. That is why they are unable to reach a final, long-lasting decision. Why do they have to think about what the coaching institutes are doing? They require thinking students and they should think about how to find them,” Delta IIT Academy director M. Srikanth felt.
He also said that the IITs should do away with the ranking system so coaching institutes don’t publicise themselves.
Experts feel that while changes in the pattern of the exam are good to keep coaching institutes guessing, the system of the exams is being subjected to frequent changes because of the lack of independence of the IITs and NITs. Dr P. Ananda Raman, mentor-director, Fiitjee, Hyderabad, said, “I suspect the kind of independence that IITs have. Educationists are not allowed to make these decisions, it is only ministers and non-educationists who are not aware of the actual scenario. I had said earlier that the 40 per cent 12th marks weightage would be a blunder and now they are scrapping it.”
Experts also suggest that the exam pattern should be changed to a two-part, two-day test with a three-hour qualifying objective test on first day.
This would also serve as the entrance test for NITs. The second part on the second day can be a subjective exam or an objective exam and can serve as the final entrance test for IITs.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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