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'Single-test policy for engineering colleges flawed'


NEW DELHI:
An analysis of the T Ramaswami committee report on JEE reforms, proposing a single entrance test for all engineering colleges (including IITs, NITs and private institutions) throughout the country, exposes many flaws. This and other recommendations of the committee were accepted by the IIT Council at its meeting on Wednesday subject to the approval of the state governments and the finance ministry.

The report says weight age would be given to class 12 marks and a SAT-kind of test would be held. But the entire proposal is based on a survey of class 12 results of just four boards – CBSE, ISC, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal – though there are a total of 42. Only 2,000 people were surveyed out of which 66% were in favour of factoring in the performance in school boards and 34% were not. Out of those who were not in favour, 45% said board examinations do not assess capability and 30% feared non-uniformity. However, 85% of those surveyed supported the concept of a single entrance test. "If there was a big enough sampling, these percentages would have increased significantly, thus, making a mockery of using class XII scores for admissions," a senior IIT functionary said. He also raised concerns about the process, especially with regard to the fairness of the testing methodology, pointing out that already there were large scale irregularities in the JEE.

When the Damodar Acharya Committee first suggested the proposal of 'normalization' of class 12 marks across boards, it was opposed by many state boards on the ground that it was not easy to do. They had also said that institutions like BITS, Pilani, and the Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering had abandoned the normalization system. In 2007, a three judge bench of the Supreme Court (Sanjay Singh vs UP PSC), while "demonstrating the anomalies/absurdities arising from scaling (normalization)", had concluded that "there are number of methods of statistical scaling (normalization), some simple and some complex. Each method or system has its merits and demerits and can be adopted only under some certain conditions or making certain assumptions."

A comparison of the Acharya Committee report on JEE reforms and the Ramasamy committee shows there is confusion on what model is best suited. Also, it is not clear how shifting to a new system would take away the dominance of coaching centres. The Acharya Committee had suggested a single formula of JEE that included a weighted sum of the class 12 result and an aptitude test. The Ramaswamy panel has given six options with many variations. Acharya said only the class 12 marks should be used, while Ramasamy said it could be class 12 alone or both class 10 and 12.

"The Ramasamy proposal is not a concrete proposal, it is basically exploration of all the possible options," the director of a new IIT said. He said, "With the new proposals, there would be multiple coachings, to be started much early, for class 10, 12, an advance test, and an aptitude test." He also feared that the ultimate scenario would be cut-throat competition in class 10 and 12. "Even with 100%, a student will not able to get an IIT seat of his choice," he said.

Posted on 19 Sep 2011