Autonomy for IIT, IIM

The finance ministry has rejected a long-standing demand of the IITs and the IIMs seeking freedom from government interference in creating faculty posts. HRD ministry had proposed the IITs, IIMs and other top technical education institutions be allowed to create teaching posts on their own, while keeping the ratio of teaching to non-teaching posts intact.The HRD minister has on occasions over the past year said he wants to increasingly grant autonomy to the IITs and the IIMs.This proposal was aimed at freeing up some of the country’s best higher educational institutions to create faculty jobs based on their needs at a time rather than on bureaucratic norms.The proposal was seen as critical because of the Foreign Education Providers Bill, that will allow foreign varsities to enter India.Freeing up creation of faculty jobs at the IITs and IIMs would have helped them compete better with foreign universities that enjoy this freedom.The IITs and the IIMs have on occasions lost out on hiring renowned experts in a department because of no vacancies at the appropriate post.The percentage of vacancies in teaching posts varies from 15 per cent to 40 per cent across the IITs and the IIMs.The National Institutes of Technology (NITs), which were to be also covered under the HRD ministry proposal, also face a huge faculty shortage.

Proficiency Test System (PTS)

The CBSE has decided to introduce an optional “proficiency test” in June 2011 for those students who will clear Class X in March 2011 on the new pattern of continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) rather than traditional board examination.Proficiency Test System (PTS) and would be available for the class X students who opted for continuous and comprehensive evaluation last year. PTS would not be a compulsion. Only interested students would opt for the same and take the test accordingly in June. PTS would be available in all subjects namely, English, Maths, Science, Social Studies and Hindi. The test would contain multiple-choice questions. However, the number of questions and the duration of the paper are yet to be finalised. The board is also trying to figure out whether the candidate could take the test online or not. The question papers would be set by institutions of repute. While Central Institute for English and Foreign Languages would prepare the questionnaire for English, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, be responsible for Science and Maths question papers. The board has also contacted Indian Council For Social Science Research and Central Hindi Institute for social studies and Hindi respectively.

IIT-JEE REFORM

Rajiv Kumar, professor of computer science at IIT Kharagpur, has submitted proposal for IIT-JEE reform.Kumar has not suggested 70% marks in class XII as the eligibility condition to appear for IIT-JEE.Kumar has suggested a single examination -- replacing IIT-JEE, AIEEE and all other states' JEEs -- by which a student, after securing a UID card, can have both all-India as well as state rank. A single (all-India level and state level each) merit list should be prepared by which one can seek admission in one of the engineering colleges, including IITs, IISERs, NITs, IIITs, states and others.there should be three sittings of the same examination conducted thrice over a fortnight or a month. An aggregated score over three sittings of the examination should be considered for the final ranking. The single test, Kumar has proposed, should be conducted with four subjects of PCMA (physics, chemistry, mathematics and aptitude) with equal weightage for all the four. There should not be any additional test to test PCMA/PCMB, which is already tested by the single test. The new proposal also says that the curriculum for entrance test should have more stress on the Plus 2 syllabus. He has argued that the skewed marks distribution in IITs is due to the fact that questions are unnecessarily complex; questions do not test much of analytical or conceptual knowledge; questions do not have proper coverage. Therefore, his proposal says, care should be taken on setting correct, unambiguous and within the syllabi Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs). It says proper and balanced questions of Plus Two standard should be set. This will reduce dependence on coaching and students will concentrate on the school level examination.

common entrance examination

Union human resources development ministry has finalised a proposal for single entrance exam for all engineering institutes like IITs, NITs and engineering colleges across the country. The proposal is likely to be put before the HRD council.HRD ministry is expected to push for a common entrance examination test for all engineering institutes in the country, effectively doing away with the IIT-JEE. HRD council is the highest decision making body of the premiere institution. The step of the HRD ministry assumes significance as an IIT directors’ committee had recommended a two-tier entrance exam structure for the prestigious institutes.

Sahal Kaush

Delhi boy Sahal Kaush has cracked the IIT-JEE exam at the age of 14 this year. He has taken admission in an undergraduate course at the IIT institute in Kanpur. Kaushik, who had secured the 33rd rank at all-India level in the IIT-JEE exam this year, has opted for the five-year integrated MSc (Physics) course.There is no age limit for admission into undergraduate courses. A student has to be intermediate pass only. Sahal is the youngest student to take admission in the IIT this year. He completed his class 12 from Vandana International School in Dwarka, Delhi, securing 78 per cent marks.