Solving the Problem:
Having listed all possible factors affecting IITs from the faulty JEE, to influence of coaching schools, to drop in quality of students entering IITs, to poor Global ranking of IITs and poor quality of faculty and lack of good teaching faculty at IITs, to the exponential increase in demand like 500,000 students competing for a bare 10,000 seats in 20 IITs, meaning only 1 in 50 can get in and the remaining 490,000 have wasted away a few years of the most important part of their lives plus their parents hard earned money…how do we solve this complex problem?. How do you come up with a solution that so many experts from IITs have failed to solve?.
If others have not found acceptable solutions, perhaps they are looking at small aspects of the problem and not the big picture. Most often people working within the system struggle to fix the problems in the system and that is where “independent consultants” come in handy. This is also why HRD Committees made up of IIT Directors have failed to come up with answers acceptable to all parties.
Sagarika Ghose: So if the IITs even today come up with a better solution… are you willing to talk to IIT faculty members.
Kapil Sibal: See anything which is better we must be open to it.
Sagarika Ghose: But for the moment these exams stand but if there is an even better exam, even better formulation.
Kapil Sibal: They may come up with something and say look this is even better let's achieve these very objectives which you have talked about in this particular manner. I'm sure the Council will embrace it.
Sagarika Ghose: Last question. Would you like to reassure the IITs that you don't want to dilute the excellence that they are so committed to?
Kapil Sibal: Absolutely. Not only… we are protective about the quality and excellence of the IIT system and its autonomy. Now we will continue to protect it because they are our premier institutions. We very much respect the faculty. Even if they have voice their opinion against us we don't think that opinion can be just brushed aside. We have issues that need to be addressed and as we move along there will be changes in this system also. We will accept those changes because ultimately that's what we are looking at.
Sagarika Ghose: So you will keep changing till you arrive to a perfect formula.
Kapil Sibal: There is never a perfect system, till we arrive at the best possible formula.
I am assuming that the HRD Minister is genuine about alternative solutions to the current stale mate wrt to JEE in IITs.
Let us consider “IIT JEE” as a Noise problem,
Source: the noise at the source is the demand for JEE ( 500,000 students and increasing). Usual treatment at the source is to build acoustic enclosures around the noisy equipment. In this case We need to reduce this demand for JEE as a first step ( more on this later)
Path: in the Noise path we introduce acoustic barriers or attenuators reducing the noise reaching the receiver. In this case the path is the JEE itself. JEE is not filtering the noise the way we want it. The Filters have to be fine tuned meaning JEE format has to change.
Receiver: the receiver is the person complaining about the Noise and is provided with ear muffs or ear plugs etc. In the case of IITs we have to see what structural change is required to yield the desired results.
Currently all experts involved in finding acceptable solutions are looking only at JEE, which is the path. No one has even looked at the demand or making necessary changes in IITs.
There are a few exceptions though. As if he read my mind, Digendra Singh Rathore a 3rd Year B Tech student from IIT Roorkee posted this message to IIT Alumni groups just now
“It is better for us to solve this JEE issue ASAP. Because, then the intellectuals need to concentrate on an equally (or rather more) important issue of reviving the education system within IITs.
Here I am specifically talking about B.Tech. (although M.Tech. also needs as far as I know.)
What a student comes out after four years depends on how he molds himself (freely) in last 3 years of his life in IIT which actually depends upon how the IIT system molds him (forcefully) in his first year in IIT.
The formula is simple. If you confuse them in their first year, they remain confused throughout their 4 years. You teach them in first year, they will be keep looking for teachers throughout the 4 years, You make them learn in first year... and they will continue learning forever..... and ever.
”
This virtually echoes the voices of the student community currently in IITs.
Cutting the demand to Get into IITs: As a first step we need to filter out students who are not interested in engineering technology but are interested only in an IIT Tag for all the wrong reasons. How ? we will address this as we go along.
Fixing flaws in JEE: every one will accept that multiple choice format has failed and brings in lower quality of students, plus it has also given a major boost to the JEE Coaching industries finances.
Not only the multiple choice format, JEE is unnecessarily tough and that means no clever student can complete board exam and sit for JEE and succeed. JEE questions are sadistic and intimidating potential students in many ways. Why does any one have to be an Einstein just to get into IIT ? JEE started as a simple filter to select meritorious students in the 60’s and has morphed in the last five decades into a monster. Passing JEE is like having to kill a dragon to get into the castle.
Receiver: IIT B.Tech degree was a five year degree requiring 70% attendance to sit for the final exam and any one failing even one subject had to repeat the entire year. It was cruel but made students study. Today we have the semester system and can afford to fail any number of times and repeat the exam later. This is also a key factor as to why as many as 250 to 300 students fail in the 1st and 2nd years in IITs. Some major changes have to be made to the degree offered.
I keep going back to Prof Kannan Moudgalyas suggestion that IITs need to scrap B.Tech Degree and concentrate on M Techs. If we kill the goose, we know we will not have any more Golden eggs. Yet the solution he suggests makes sense.
Flash of Genius: This is a movie about a nutty professor who gets a brilliant idea when he sees himself in the mirror and observes how he bats his eye lids. This flash of an idea has resulted in our windscreen wipers for cars being intermittent and variable speeds to suit the rain at any point of time. (A must watch movie for true blue engineers and inventors)
Getting down to a Possible solution: Time is of essence at this point of time and solution has to be offered before HRD scars & destroys IITs beyond recognition and neutralises all that IITs have stood for.
I will put them down in bulleted form so that the order can be rearranged as necessary.
1. Let us scrap the B.Tech Degree in the original Five IITs altogether. Lets us instead use JEE to select students truly committed to engineering & Technology, weeding out those who just want an IIT Badge. Let the top five IITs give only Dual Degrees leading to an M.Tech lasting five years as we have now or an M Tech Hons that is of six years duration for those committed to doing Research at IITs leading to a PhD.
2. If top 5 IITs offered only Dual Degrees, the number of students taking JEE will drop from 5 lakhs to may be 2 lakhs over night. This will weed out those who want to do MBA or body shopping business ( I mean Recruiters) or get into the finance sector etc
3. HRD and Kakodkar Committee are right in wanting to convert IITs into Research Hubs. What better way to do it than by selecting the right students through a fair JEE.
4. Current Multiple choice JEE is a flop and needs to be discarded immediately.
5. Proposed JEE Mains and JEE Advanced etc again pander to coaching schools and put IITs out of reach of poor students who may be bright. This idea has to be dumped for good.
6. Make JEE an On line exam that can be taken throughout the year. Limit the JEE Syllabus to CBSC syllabus. No questions should be from outside the syllabus. Create a database of all JEE questions from physics, maths and chemistry for the last 55 years. Eliminate questions that fall outside the syllabus. Ensure that all questions have one word answers that are alpha numeric that can be keyed in using a computer key board. No multiple choice. Just one answer. You either get it right or not. Student will be asked are you sure you want to lock in this answer? as in Who wants to be a Millionaire. Say yes and you move on to the next question.
a. Here is the beauty. Every student taking the exam will get a random selections of questions in physics, chemistry and maths all at the same time. Computer generated random questions taken out of the database.
b. The student will have to answer as many questions in a three hour period and the program will terminate the exam exactly after three hours from commencement.
c. There can be no cheating, no use of wifi and blue tooth technology to get answers from outsiders. Plus as every student is getting different questions all the time, there cannot be a fairer exam.
d. This system is used in some Australian universities for some exams and is also used by Road Transport Department of NSW for Driving Licence Tests.
e. At the end of the JEE exam the computer will tell the candidate how many questions were attempted in the three hours and how many were correct plus give instantly a rank, telling you how many students have taken the exam before you, and what percentage of students who took the exam are worse off than you. Example a JEE Score of say 99.5 suggests that 99.5% of students who took the same on line exam scored less than you at that point when the result is furnished. Let us call this IITAI – IIT Admission Index all Computer generated with zero scope for human error or manipulation etc as is now with JEE.
f. This rank as we can understand will keep changing on a daily basis as more and more students take the exam. It could improve and it could also get worse with time. For this reason every registered user will be allowed two attempts at the exam in a calendar year and the better result of the two locked in.
g. To make JEE fair for all students Nationally, IITs should publish the entire database of questions in all three subjects, with answers like JEE guide books. This Guide book must be sold along with application forms to apply for JEE.
h. This will allow poor students who cannot go to expensive coaching schools a fair opportunity if not equal, to have a shot at IIT through home study.
i. IIT Aspirants should also be able to take mock on line exams any number of times to boost their confidence as well as understand how it works.
j. Let us say we have 5000 questions in each subject, maths physics and chemistry, say a database of 15,000 questions in all, the software can be designed to change the numerical value of the variables in the questions, to eliminate students mugging questions and answers and regurgitating.
k. To make it even more challenging, this on Line JEE should be an OPEN Book exam with blank papers scribble pad for doing calculations. While every one believes that Open book exams are easy as you have the book to assist, referring text books in exams causes inordinate delays and slows down the student who does not know the answer and is looking up the text book for solutions.
l. This on line JEE is all about how many questions one can answer in three hours and how many one gets correct. When this new format comes into vogue, JEE Coaching schools will die off gradually even if not instantly.
m. JEE should not end here. Top 20,000 students should then take JEE Advanced which is the Original IIT JEE where students have to write answers and solve problems. This is where IIT Faculty can distinguish between true native intelligence and spoon fed reasoning. Pick the top ten thousand and allot them to IIT of Choice.
n. Here is another key ingredient that needs to be introduced into the selections process. DO NOT ANNOUNCE RANKS AND DO NOT ALLOT BRANCHES EVEN BEFORE THEY JOIN IITs. Let all the students enter IITs as equals having cleared the two step JEE. The Ranks should not be shown even to faculty members to avoid prejudices. Ranking and talk like x,y,z was rank 6 nationally etc just places a halo on the heads of young students, who ought to be taught to be humble
o. Years one and two shall be general engineering and humanities
p. Before they go to third year, students have to nominate three branch preferences from available courses and attend interview where faculty get the opportunity to get the best students who could go on to do research under them. The next two years will be grooming and polishing these rough diamonds.
q. These dual degree M.Techs coming through JEE , would beat current PhD students hands down, only because the core Ingredient came through JEE Process. These dual degree IITians and should be allowed to become Professors to teach Nationally.
r. If this is acceptable and adopted it would become easy to implement Kakodkar Committee recommendations turning IITs into Research hubs.
s. This would please the HRD Ministry, would please Senates of all IITs and would please All India IIT Faculty Federation, the alumni and the parents will not be out of pocket so much.
t. Who knows the proposal may even send students back to schools full time as Coaching schools will have very little to offer. When this happens we will get top teachers from coaching schools, opting to teach at regular schools and even in IITs.......
Before I forget, I believe that IITs should also have a dual degree in Business studies leading to an MBA catering to the demand out there. This also gives students an opportunity to not continue with engineering if they don't like to.
IIT Kharagpur does seem to have a dual degree B.Tech (Hons.) MBA programme as may be seen from the following link
The following link says that all Management Schools of IITs are proposing to offer 5 year Dual Degree B.Tech. any discipline and MBA. but I am not sure if any other IIT has implemented the same other than IIT KGP
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