In 2005, a committee, constituted by directors of the IITs to review the JEE, had recommended a minimum eligible mark in board exams for admission to the IITs.
It had also recommended to allow only those students, who are in the upper 2% of class 10th and 12th, to take the JEE. The proposal was aimed at restricting the number of examinees to about 10 times the number of seats available. The present seats-examinees ratio is 1:46.
However, on the recommendation of the CBSE chairman, a minimum of 60% marks in class 12th was accepted for eligibility and was implemented three years ago. This cut-off was considered to be too low to make a difference to the number of students taking the JEE.
The committee said that the coaching institutions had grown to "mammoth proportions"; their sole aim was to teach students "crack" the JEE. "Intensive coaching for three to four years burn the students out, killing their creativity and impairing their ability to think. Thus, the quality of a section of the students gaining admissions through this process is a cause of concern," the report had said.
It added that the coaching institutions were making a mockery of the school education,
exploiting the vulnerability of students and parents.
"JEE has become an examination which can be cleared only by students trained at coaching classes. But the test's objective is to find students with raw intelligence at the higher secondary level. Students, who have skipped three years of schooling to attend coaching classes, to get through the JEE acquire an 'the end justifies the means' attitude. It is these students who resort to habitual clogging at the IITs subsequently," the report said.
Another recommendation was to admit students without allotting branches. The idea was to assign them branches after two semesters, based on their performance.
However, an IIT-Delhi graduate says that the IIT-JEE has many more questions that are not in the CBSE syllabus. Students have to study extra to cover that.
"Attending coaching only enhances knowledge. IIT -JEE pattern is based on multiple choices which cannot be done by jotting down note. One has to be conceptually clear to answer them," said the IITian, who is now an IAS officer.
"The move would be successful only when a uniform board for class XII is introduced in the country," said Sanjeev Kalsekar, registrar of IIT-Kanpur.
