Common entrance exam...are we prepared?

OUR roads remain workable, thanks to the patchwork done here and there to avoid catastrophes. So can our higher education system, believes Human Resource Development Minister (HRD) Kapil Sibal, who is adamant about implementing the common entrance examination for all engineering colleges from 2013. This insistence on his part ensures that premier institutions like IITs resort to patchwork in a rush to implement his will. The faculty for 14 IITs, barring Guwahati and Patna, their administrative bodies and powerful alumni associations have opposed the decision of the minister, stating they are not prepared to implement the new one-nation, one-exam policy in a rush.

Every year over five lakh students take the entrance exam for 10,000 seats in IITs. The proposed common entrance exam will have two steps — ‘main’ and ‘advanced’. The results of class 12 board exams will also play a decisive role. The ministry had proposed a 40:30:30 formula - with class 12 board results counting for 40 per cent, and the two stages of the entrance exam counting for 30 per cent each. However, IIT officials objected and won the right to form their own formula. Starting next year, IITs will give equal weight (50 per cent each) to class 12 results and to the performance of the candidate in the main exam. Some 50,000 short-listed students will then move on to the advanced exam.
The assurance given by Sibal that the common entrance exam will reduce the pressure on students and discourage coaching centres has met with resistance from the faculty of IITs. They say both the processes and content of the new examination will not be clear to them any time soon and insist that in no case the new system should be introduced before 2014. The HRD Ministry should at least respect the wisdom of existing institutions of excellence by not meddling in their autonomy to implement its ‘political will.’