IITs may revert to old single stage entrance test

Sources say many IITs want to break away from JEE(main) that is also the gateway to NITs and IITs and is conducted by CBSE. Instead, they want to revert to the old system and hold a single entrance examination exclusively for IIT aspirants. IIT Guwahati will be conducting the entrance test for 2016.

IITs find the two step entrance examination cumbersome and time consuming. Some faculty members have found faults with the present system, say sources. The probability of a candidate getting into an IIT is far less than to an NIIT. There can not be a common examination for two different sets of students, an IIT professor held. Also, this cumbersome process leads to a waste of time that could be a reason why some IIT seats remain vacant, he added.

IIT admission became a two phase affair in 2013 at the prodding of the HRD ministry. The ministry wanted to bring admissions to all engineering colleges under one roof and decided to hold a common entrance test for NIITs and IITs. But when IIT Kanpur threatened to quit the common entrance system and hold its own admission test on its own, MHRD allowed the IITs to hold a second test (JEE Advanced), explained a senior faculty member of an IIT.

IITs now want to revert to the pre 2013 system in which an IIT from each of the seven zones conducted the entrance test by rotation. If the proposal is accepted at the JAB meeting on Sunday, it will be forwarded to the IIT Council, which will take the final call.

JABs experience with the two step admission system has not been quite happy, say sources. We see no reason why IIT aspirants should take two examinations. The main and advanced exams, held within a span of one and a half months, burden students. The pressure taxes their concentration, said a senior IIT JEE official.

IIT officials argue that they can increase the number counseling rounds if they hold a single examination for the IITs. IITs could hold only hold three rounds of counseling due to a time constraint. If a single entry test is allowed then the results will be published much earlier and the number of counselling rounds can be increased.

However, switching to the old system has its problems, too. Unlike under the existing system, in which only 1.5 lakh students are allowed to take the JEE(Advanced) entrance after screening, anyone can sit for the single IIT entrance, thus pushing up the number of candidates. Reverting to the old system is at the proposal stage right now. It will be placed in the JAB meeting tomorrow. There will be discussions and consultations at different levels before a final decision is arrived at, said Devang V Khakar, director of IIT Powai.

(ToI)