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| Single Entrance Test Boon or bane ? | | | Sunita Vakil | 6/9/2012 11:56:55 PM |
| Good news may be just round the corner as India is poised to move to a single entrance test for admission to engineering college across the country possibly as early as next year. Human Resources Development Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal is pushing for a single joint entrance test to replace the current IIT-JEE and AIEEE for gaining entry into undergraduate technical courses. To cap it all, the class 12 board exam results will also find weightage in his new reformed proposal. This is being done ostensibly to eliminate two major problems, traumatic stress for students taking multiple examinations and high costs. Undoubtedly, these reforms are significant and would positively improve the quality of education. Earlier reforms like making promotions up to class 8 automatic and making the CBSE class X board examinations optional too were sincere efforts on the part of the HRD ministry to bring about the much needed change. After over two years of talks to sort out the differences, the HRD ministry, the IITs and other leading Engineering and Technology colleges finally struck a compromise on Monday and decided to adopt a Common Engineering Entrance Exam beginning 2013. The ministry is keen to implement this format from the next academic year itself, something which is being firmly opposed by the faculty federation and most of the IIT senates. The IIT faculty and alumni associations have opposed the move on the ground that it would undermine the autonomy of the prestigious institutions thereby adversly impacting the standard of education.
At the end of the education minister's conference convened by the HRD ministry in the capital on Tuesday Kapil Sibal said "the proposal for a common examination process for admission to engineering programmes was supported unanimously." However, the move will be complete only if all state governments sign on to the deal and bring state level entrance examinations for engineering institutions under the purview of the common entrance examination. Under the new system, the Joint Entrance Examination to undergraduate programmes in engineering would be conducted in two parts, JEE main test and JEE advanced test. Both the tests will be held on the same day and are compulsory for all candidates. Also, significant weightage is to be given to class X board results. This will be first normalized across the various school boards on a percentile basis to correct the differing marking standards at different boards. The HRD ministry said in a statement that the academic body to be constituted for the JEE main test will have representation from states in an appropriate manner. It was also underlined that the entrance can be conducted in a specific regional language as well.
Indeed, India is the most competative country in the world in terms of students appearing for various national exams. The country has more than 4000 Engineering Colleges and at least 3.5 million students enter them every year. If the common National Examination for admission to engineering courses in 2013 lives up to its expectations it will be no mean achievement. Single entrance test needs to be seen and welcomed as a never too late attempt to check the multiplicity of entrance tests and is undeniably a step in the right direction. Students of Class XII seeking admission to various engineering colleges will have to take one single entrance test by 2013. Under the existing system, students have to prepare for a plethora of entrance exams to various institutes. This puts enormous burden on the aspiring students making their academic development patchy. A student has to sit for at least five to six entrance exams to have any chance of getting admitted to an institute. The move is a welcome step as it will reduce student's stress for they will no longer be bogged down by multiple examinations. Students also end up spending more money in exam fee alone. Sometimes some exams overlap or are held in a gap of one or two days in various states. This results in students having to take flights to travel between exams centers. So for many, before they really get admitted to any college, they have to take loans to pay for these exams. Besides reducing the stress and expenses, it will also lead to a more uniform assessment.
There is little doubt that multiple entrance tests not only create undue stress on student's minds but also lead to a cramming culture. The situation that prevails is one of the main reasons for the mushrooming of teaching shops that go by the name of coaching centres.
Of late, India has seen the emergence of a new trend which has slowly transformed into a major industry in the service sector, with the rising competition for admission to various institutions and the number of examinations to appear, for students are seeking coaching and guidance from outside which is putting extra financial burden on the parents. Given the plethora of examinations to attend to the aspiring students are left with no choice but to look for newer alternatives to get an edge over their peers. As the regular classes in schools and colleges have failed to make them feel secure the coaching classes have conveniently filled this void. An estimate by ASSOCHAM in 2008 claimed that the coaching for admission to the IITs and other engineering colleges alone has acquired the status of Rs. 10,000 core industry. Evidently the net gainer out of all this admission hysteria is the coaching industry which has emerged as a parallel education system. Now, the new single entrance test will actually remove all ills of the system. The coaching centre culture fuelled by multiple entrance tests too will go down, giving a more level field to poor students. The benefit of giving weightage to board results would be a more comprehensive assessment and boost to classroom education which was suffering under the current system.
Despite the obvious benefits, concerns remain. The level of education in the schools of different states may affect class 12 scores. Clarity would also be needed on the formats of the two parts of the new examination, what is the guarantee that some influential persons will not get false certificates for their wards as happened many years ago when IITs admitted top 10 from each school board directly without any entrance test. Besides, how can you ensure that coaching classes for class 12th exam will not spring as fast as coaching for IIT sprang up? In fact, the new regulations can be even counter productive because students will now have to spend more time and resources for both board and the JEE. This will fail the very objective of curbing the influence of coaching institutions and will indeed prove to be a boon for their business opportunities. There are also apprehensions that the paper may get leaked in some obscure corner of the country.
In such a case, what will be the course if action? Will the tests in thousands of centres across the country be scrapped and reheld? These are some of the issues that need to be given much thought. As we know board exams are still plagued by rampant cheating and are very lax in many states. Also there are no fixed parameters of how to standardize marking patterns throughout the country. This will invariably lead to disparity. Given the multiple concerns, the government needs to ensure that every aspect is completely thought out in advance. All irritants including the concerns of different states will have to be sorted out. Schools need to provide better education to curb the influence of a thriving tuition industry, exerting unhealthy pressure on the examination process. Blaming just coaching institutions won't be justified in the true sense. This industry is just filling the void created by poor educational facilities and poor policy making by those in power.
The onus definitely lies on the govt. and the educational regulatory authorities to bring in more pragamatic reforms to strengthen the existing educational system of the country. This will then lead to the automatic withering of such money minting factories. The govt. needs to look before leaping. This is no time for experimentation as the careers of a large number of students are involved. All in all, it is a good move in the right direction. But only time will tell if it is really going to be successful. And as with most things in the govt. sphere, implementation is going to be the key.
The writer is a Delhi based senior journalist and can be reached at: sunitavakil @ yahoo.co.in
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