New pattern to thwart AP students' entry

Normalisation formula not ratified by ISI When there was hot debate over various proposals for reforming the pattern of Joint Entrance Examination last year, Prof Sanjeev Sanghi, a senior faculty at IIT Delhi and Union President of faculty members of all IITs, has delivered a lecture in Hyderabad in which he clearly stated that the methodology that was implemented till 2012 failed to produce qualitative stuff. "The objective mode test which was introduced in 2006 for admissions into IITs has been found faulty and, many students, who have secured good ranks in the entrance, failed in first semester itself. This has to be changed and a new method shall take into account the marks of qualifying exam as well" he felt. Accordingly, after a series of discussions at national level, the new pattern has been introduced, which was a two-tier mode viz JEE Mains and JEE Advanced. While JEE Mains was primarily an entrance test for JEE Advanced, it has also been the basis for admissions into NITs, IIITs and CFTIs. 40 percent of weightage marks from Board exam (ie Intermediate) and 60 percent of JEE Mains marks were taken for making all India merit list. Here comes the problem. A key question of how to bring parity among all Boards of 28 states was not satisfactorily explained by the IIT authorities, who spearheaded the reforms. Even the Indian Statistical Institute expressed its inability to address the issue saying 'it is impossible to achieve normalcy of all Boards, given the wide range of variance of syllabi and pattern of viva and marks'. But the CBSE, with endorsement from MHRD, went ahead with the so-called reform process and created a formula of normalization, which has now become a subject of huge controversy. As far as JEE Advanced is concerned, again there was a hitch in the form of 'top 20 percentile norm'. It was primarily aimed at getting the cream out of every state. This has also generated a lot of heat and several academicians stated that it will not yield the desired result. Many have argued for reviving pre-2006 methodology of subjective mode, but it was turned down. Experts from Andhra Pradesh have strongly criticised the new formats saying that they were brought to thwart the entry of students from the state who have been dominating the results for the past six years or so. Out of a total of 9,885 seats in IITs, about a quarter of them have been from AP. The top ranks were also being secured by AP students. "This has become an eyesore for many academicians and even the IIT faculty. That's why they have conveniently raised the issue of Board marks and created a faulty formula" Dr Madhusudhan Reddy, General Secretary of Government Junior College Lecturers Associations alleged. "If they want to reform IIT pattern, the first thing that has to be done is to make the entire curriculum of Plus 2 (Intermediate) uniformly same across the country. Only then a level playing field can be created" Dr Aruna Devalla, a senior faculty at KV said. "The process of conducting one exam by CBSE and another by IITs is wrong. When there is no parity, subjective mode can be introduced" Chukka Ramaiah, eminent academician opined.