The furore over the Government's decision to streamline admission process for centrally-funded technology institutes spread with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur's criticising the move.
Prof A.K. Mittal, Secretary, All India IIT Faculty Federation, said: “Most of the IITs have been opposing it (common entrance examination). Senates have never accepted it.”
The IIT-Delhi senate is likely to meet shortly. “There is definitely a lot of reaction. The decision at the Delhi meeting could be same, or could be even stronger. Let the senate decide,” Prof Mittal said.
Mr G.B. Reddy, JEE Chairman, said that the IIT-Delhi faculty is arguing the plus and minus of the system and a decision is likely soon.
IIT-K against it
At a meeting the IIT-Kanpur senate decided to oppose the joint entrance examination (JEE) reforms proposed in the IIT Council. Prof Mittal said that the Federation has written to the Prime Minister Office (PMO) seeking the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's intervention in the matter.
He said that they are likely to meet the Prime Minister in the next few days.
Mr V. Uma Shankar, Private Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources Development, Mr Kapil Sibal, said that the decision to reform the entrance examination process was taken after four IIT senates approved it. “There are seven IITs and only two have an issue with it,” he said, adding that the decision had been taken on majority opinion.
However, Prof Mittal said that they do not see any reason why the system should be changed. “We are not against the ‘one nation, one exam' idea. But we see no reason to change the system. This exam has been conducted by the IITs for so many decades and have the competency to do it. Most institutes don't conduct their own exam and we can help them.”
weightage
Talking about the weightage being given to class XII board results, Mr Uma Shankar said that this change is important since students who appear for JEE tend to ignore their school education, leading to a weak base. “The board is the same, it happens every year. The only thing is that now students can't afford to ignore it,” he said.