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Joint Seat Allocation Authority, has been the buzzword over the last few weeks for lakhs of students. Has this been one of the best changes in the system? Or, did it add to the confusion of the already existing process? How did the option of being able to fill in more than 500 choices affect the students? What could have influenced the minds of the 18 year olds while making the choices? Is it just the brand name of the IITs that ultimately matters to the students? The fundamental education is put at stake, in a bid a to coach students for the entrance exams. Where will this lead to?
Read on to know Prof. Aakash Chaudhry's take on the scenario that looms over the engineering field.
One of the most sensible things the JEE authorities have done this year was, to conduct combined seat allocation process. I think it helped in preventing the seats going waste in IITs. This had been a problem for some years especially since the time more number of IITs came into existence; a student would block an IIT seat and then join an NIT in his/her home state. This year, however, thanks to the Joint allocation this problem has reduced considerably.
But the joint allocation was not an easy sail. Though the options were available under one roof, it caused a lot of chaos and confusion for the students. Most 17 and 18 year olds do not have the maturity to understand complex matrix of options and new changes to fill in appropriate choices according to their ranks.
Choosing a college is a big decision for children, and more so for parents. The selection they make involves a lot of discussion and guidance from their family. One thing however, that is common to students across the country is their attachment to the native states. This influences their decisions more than anything else. Apart from this, other factors too, like their ranks, the availability of seats in their preferred stream, too plays a role in deciding the choice of college.
Many students get into an IIT just for the brand name that comes with it, even though it may be Ropar or Bhubaneswar. This could be a good thing. If one looks at the example of IIT Guwahati, they will understand. Over the years it has developed to have recognition as one among the top IITs despite being a relatively new IIT. However some still would like to stick to the top older ones and just accept whatever branch they get.
The option of filling up to 500 choices added to the confusion, simply because at that age students cannot understand the logic and make their choices accordingly. The fact that parents influence their decision is good as well as a bad state. It is good because parents are more mature and usually take the right decision for their children. Bad because ultimately they tend to force their opinion or aspirations, and the child may never develop a sense of decision making in their lives.
Funnily enough, one can never understand what, apart from the parent's opinion that influences the choice of the student.
Ultimately getting into the IIT is what matters to them, which is not very difficult these days with all the tutoring, motivation, guidance etc. that has become easily available now. The education system has been dumbed down to a great extent with dummy-schools, so cracking an entrance exam is not a distant dream anymore. Any student can easily score 'A' grade, and eventually crack the entrances and get a rank.
But in a bid to just crack these entrance exams students in some these coaching hubs, don't attend school. The dummy schools and proxy attendance, is something I am against. It ruins the students' overall growth and ultimately their academic potential as well. What does this lead to? Where will we head to? What are we trying to achieve? Why does it have to boil down to a point where the students learn to crack the JEE but not sustain the life and rigour of IITs?
Answers for this are not easy to find. The flaw in the system needs to be changed. How? And, when? These again have no right answers.
Mr. Aakash Chaudhry is the, Director of Aakash Educational Services Pvt Ltd, Delhi.
It is good that there are so many IITs coming up in India. And why do I say that. It is because the government can guarantee superior investment to curate good education with IITs.
Most talk about education standards going down in the IITs with so many new IITs happening. Why will it go down? How will the quality of IIT Bombay go down if a new IIT comes up anywhere else in India? The argument does not make sense to me. People said the same thing when additional IIMs were sanctioned. But post their initial teething problems, all of them are picking up.
Yes, I agree that there are various issues that need to be kept in mind while setting up new IIMs and IITs. Infrastructure, faculty, facilities, industry interface, attracting talented students and of course the overall excellence need to be sorted. But IITs spell good education in India. They are world famous institutes and they are known to nurture some of the brightest minds in India. They are government run, so in effect when more IITs come up; it means engineering education is getting a boost. Who else can or will invest to provide quality education if not the government?
When new IITs are set up, yes, there will be teething problems but eventually they will turn out well with guidance from the board. The new ones are mentored and groomed by the older IITs and there is enough hand-holding to make sure the new ones are managed well.
So irrespective of a new IIT or an old one, an IIT education will make a difference, definitely much more than any of the top rung private engineering institutes in India right now.
Also, look at how many good private engineering colleges are around. I'm not saying they are not there, but they are very few in number. To keep education going at all times, especially with increasing population of engineering aspirants wanting to join technology bandwagon, and keeping it of good quality you need a strong back-up. A good support system and that can only be supported by a body like the government.
So I'm all in favour of the government setting up more IITs and IIMs. It will only help take education to all parts of country, yet keep the quality superior than what is available right now.
Let the initial problems happen - they will only die down after a while - it will be worth it. IITs have some of the best faculty today and there is nothing better than good faculty to keep your institute flying high.
The education system has often been criticised for a variety of reasons. The syllabus and methods today have been dumbed-down to a large extent in a bid to reduce 'stress' for students. The fact that students care nothing about real learning but just depend on tips and tricks, shortcuts is the way the system functions today. Parents today are worried about the fact that their children have this laid-back attitude towards studies. But how much of this is the fault of the children itself, rather than the methods we have incorporated?
In an attempt to draw attention to the disparity in the education structure we have created a movie, Rough Book. The movie is directed by the Indie film director, Anant Mahadevan.It is an attempt to establish correct facts about coaching and highlight wrong practices that some players accede to. Students' not-attending schools, dummy attendance, day-night coaching, are some practices which we are totally against. The movie highlights the point that correct coaching can definitely build careers of even weak students. These are the students, who generally get misplaced in the classification of students, on the basis their marks.
Having been in the education sector for over 2 decades now, we have closely experienced problems which students, teachers, and the management face. All the scenes and dialogues in the movie are motivated from our own personal experiences of dealing with teachers, students and parents. Apart from our own inputs, the script team also visited various schools, met with teachers, 7 principals, their students as well as sat in the class to observe teachings styles. It was an involved effort of nearly 2-3 months before actual shoot could start. Our deep knowledge of coaching industry, its' teachers, students and parents gave us all what we needed to write the story and create a movie script with myriad characters.
A still from the film- the students
We don't intend to revolutionise or change the education system over night. But this film is an attempt to educate students and teachers about the kind of negative impact the existing system has. The idea is to differentiate between studying and learning. That is what film aims at.
If one looks at the city of Kota, they will understand the intensity of the issue. Students from the age of 12 go to live there and study, but what facilities do they get? The city has already been stretched at the seams, but still year after year there is a huge influx of students. Their accommodations are filthy. The quality of food is bad. There are so many concerns that need to be addressed, yet ignored.
We are a nation with the youngest population, but what is the future available for these youngsters. The situations are thought provoking, yet it is neglected. Without the base of good, quality education how will these youngsters survive? Where will our country head to? If at young age, one doesn't get good education and employment, it is easy to head towards crime. Won't that be a disaster? The govt. is doing things, but basic education up to 10 std. is still very fragile.
There should be more focus on providing quality teaching at the primary and secondary level of education.
Rough book was released in Kota, Rajasthan, where it has completed it's 5th week of successful run. Post that the movie released in Delhi. It will be released across the country with upcoming openings in Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh
Dr. Ajay K Sharma is the Director of National Institute of Technology, Delhi. He has achieved a number of accolades for his contributions in the field of science. He is a life member of some of the most prestigious societies of the world. He has also published over 270 research papers in different journals and 12 books. He is a coach to most of his colleagues and an educator for those who look up to him. He has a professional experience of about 25 years, but surprisingly, science and technology are not his only interests. He is a devoted painter too.
Only a handful of people are familiar with this hobby. He has been painting since childhood, an art he learned by observing his elder brother. His paintings show an in-depth zeal for creativity. He has mastered the art of oil painting and has won several competitions in both School & College. When PaGaLGuY asked him about the secrecy of this hidden talent, he laughed and said ' There is no particular reason. I never got a chance to share this because there are several different topics which keep me busy'. He painted even while doing his B.E (Bachelor of Engineering) from Punjab University, Chandigarh because he felt that it helped him in letting out emotions and almost acted as a source of meditation. He strongly feels that there should be some activity or hobby through which one can express without having the want to speak.
