A Bit of History of IITs in the 60's and IITs today

History IIT-JEE:

One needs to get an understanding of the history of IITs and JEE. Thanks to Wikipedia for providing this information on line

IITs in the 1960’s -70’s as compared to  current students in 2012

Originally IITs were all about selecting the cream of students based on just one criteria – Merit, to educate them in Institutions with state of the art laboratories provided by foreign countries and taught by the best faculty the nation had. 

IITs provided best salary packages to faculty then, to attract the most gifted teachers from all over India. 

The other key ingredient was National Integration. 

IITs had no reputation or Brand name and attracted only students interested in engineering technology.

In 2012 an average B.Tech student earns more than the Director of an IIT ( I am quoting Prof Anant here) after forty years of service as a faculty member and this means IITs are unable to attract the best teachers.

IITs have acquired such a Global Brand image that we have over 500,000 students who want to get the IIT tag even if they are not interested in engineering technology.

This becomes clear when we find that only a very small percentage of B.Tech students continue to stay back and do research in IITs. Not only that not even 20% continue to practice in the Branch of engineering with which they graduated. 

The beneficiaries of India’s best Institutions the IITs are Multi Nationals who grab our B.Tech students even before they graduate making them offers of salary packages they cannot refuse. These MNCs are mostly Finance, Banking, IT and Consultancy companies. B.Techs are 'not' employed for their engineering prowess but for the fact that they have what it takes to succeed in any field, the core ingredient being higher IQ and analytical minds and skills.

If IITians have succeeded and created a Brand for themselves they have themselves to thank and the exam that was able to pick them, 'the JEE'. Very few alumni give much credit to the general quality and standards of teaching at any of the IITs but always say there are a few exceptionally gifted teachers.

Problems IITs are Facing today in Year 2012:

1.     Demand to get into IITs through JEE has created major problems for the filtering process. The numbers are mind boggling. There is no clear and simple way to identify who wants to be an engineer and who just wants a B.Tech Degree and an IIT Tag to get top jobs globally.

2.     Faculty: Salaries in IITs are not good enough to attract talented teachers who are also interested in research. This may sound harsh but common sense tells us that if you pay peanuts you get only monkeys. There may be a few dedicated teachers and researchers but the majority of faculty members have a kushy job for life, complete with accommodation on campus; and we wonder why IITs are not producing quality research and getting global patents. A PhD is required in India to become a Faculty member in an IIT, fair enough but can some one explain if all PhDs are good teachers and great researchers ?

3.    B.Tech Degree: We started off with a 5year B Tech degree with surprise exams in each subject, called periodicals. If a student failed in one subject he had to repeat the entire year and all subjects all over again.  One also needed  minimum 70% attendance to be allowed to sit for the final exams. Today a B.Tech degree is a lot easier to pass. It is now a 4 year B.Tech and we have the semester system and if you failed in a subject you could clear the subject during the summer vacation courses offered. Its is like a production line and IITs do not want it clogged by duds who keep failing so they just push them out regardless.

4.     Why IIT Alumni are divided on JEE: IIT alumni are made up of B.Tech Graduates and the non B Tech Graduates. Majority of B.Tech Graduates know the true value of getting selected to an IIT through JEE. In the early years they felt great to be in the top 1% of students in India. In 2012 with 500,000 students sitting for JEE for 10,000 seats it makes the success even sweeter as they are in the top 0.02% of just aspirants and top 0.002% considering about 50 lakh students in India want to be engineers every year. The Non B.Tech alumni are the Post Graduate students most of whom did not get selected by IIT JEE but did their masters and doctorates in IITs. Alumni who are non BTechs don’t value JEE as much ( no offense meant ), while the B Techs are most vocal in preserving JEE, understandably. (there will be exceptions as always )

5.     Why Faculty are Divided on JEE: The same reasons as the alumni. IIT Faculty members who did B.Tech after clearing JEE are the minority group while the vast majority of IIT Faculty members are non B.Techs

6.     Socialists: Then we have among alumni and faculty socialists who oppose IIT Brand and elitism and want to get rid of JEE to make it a level playing field for poor students especially from Rural India. IITs are constantly being accused of being Brahamanical and elite, which is unfair accusation. The question is whether scrapping JEE will allow poorer students to get into IITs. I do not think so.

7.     IITs go From Pro Merit to Pro Rich as a consequence of JEE Coaching schools: IITs were always about Pro Merit and this was successfully maintained for about four decades before the rot set in. JEE was made tougher and tougher as time went by and it reached a stage that no school student could get into IITs without going to coaching schools. Whose fault was this? Faculty at IITs blame the coaching schools. In fact the fault lies with the JEE Committees who lacked the vision to see the monster JEE they were creating. The result is that almost a million students attend coaching schools today as teaching standards in regular schools are woeful. JEE coaching schools can cost as much as Rs 1 lakh per student as a minimum and this wiped out the students from poor sector from even thinking of competing. From Pro Merit IITs became Pro Rich by default for students whose parents could afford expensive JEE coaching schools. The fault is not the coaching schools, or the HRD or the students. The fault lies with IIT JEE Committees who were wearing blinkers and could not read the trend.

8.     Propogating a New Caste system in education: If the last five decades IITs were Brahamanical we are told.: Quoting Dr Pritam Singh, former IIM Lucknow Director “The Brahminical arrogance of some institutions which consider themselves superior and others untouchable is not fair.”  Assuming what he says is not disputed, imagine the consequences of the one engineering entrance exam system proposed by HRD now. A student has to have parents who can afford all sorts of coaching from Board school lessons to JEE Mains Coaching and JEE advanced coaching. Are we not creating a new Caste system in education where quality education in India is reserved for the children of the wealthy?

9.     IITM’s Solution: The current solution offered by IIT Madras senate and adopted by HRD is again nothing more than tinkering with an existing system that is already flawed and tinkering would make it worse. Normalising Board exam results Nationally and having a JEE Main for 5 lakh students followed by a JEE-Advanced for the top 50,000 is again so flawed that it makes you want to cry. Is this the best IITM Faculty can come up with is the question or they pandering to pressures from HRD and guided by flawed recommendations of Acharya Committee and Ramaswamy Committee ? One problem is that IITM Faculty have this attitude that they know more than others and seldom look outside the box to find solutions to complex social problems. Assuming IITM Senates recommendations were exemplary, why would other Senates oppose this proposal?