Halt manipulations

Second Edit

The system of admissions to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has recently attracted much criticism. Information procured under the RTI act has now added to the controversy. It has exposed the entrance system as faulty and even vulnerable to manipulation. Irregularities in the valuation of answers scripts of candidates and even favouritism, with those related to faculty members getting special consideration, have been noticed. Many candidates who got poor marks were able to secure admission. One RTI enquiry found that 994 candidates with low marks in the entrance examination got admission in 2006 while 4,000 others with higher marks failed to get through. A candidate with 37 marks in maths, 48 in physics and 69 in chemistry was admitted while another with 36 in maths, 116 in physics and 127 in chemistry was not. Similarly in 2007 the top 7,202 candidates who qualified for admission had an aggregate cutoff of 206 marks and the scores of some of them were as low as 12 in maths, 22 in physics and 18 in chemistry.

The problem has been attributed to the faulty cut-off system that prevailed in the IIT-JEE but this cannot be an excuse. IIT authorities have accepted this as an aberration and have claimed that in spite of them the majority of the candidates who are admitted are very meritorious. The claim is not fully convincing because the system has also been found to be overwhelmingly helpful to candidates who undergo coaching. This is known to put a premium on skills rather than on intelligence, and even gives an undue advantage to those who can afford to pay the high coaching fees.

It was in this context that a proposal was made to consider the class XII marks of candidates also along with the entrance test scores for admission. The Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal’s proposal to fix a qualifying score of 80-85 per cent in class XII was opposed as it was considered too high but there is recognition of the need to consider a high percentage of these marks also as an essential qualification for admission. A committee appointed by the government is seized of new admission procedures for the IIT. It should device a transparent and flawless admission system so that IITs can continue to maintain their reputation for excellence.