On Kapil Sibal's 80% marks in Boards requirement for Entry to IITs

Today I came across the newspaper and I was surprised to see the requirement of 80% marks in the board examinations for entry in to IITs. Even more shocking was the fact that Kapil Sibal wants to discourage coaching.
Just wondered , How about discouraging education itself? What could be the driving force behind discouraging coaching?It is just another form of education.

Before meddling with the IIT JEE system, I would like the Government of India or any of the Government officials to ponder over the following points:

1. IIT JEE is meant for producing world class engineers. To produce world class engineers you would need world class brains. To identify world class brains you must have a testing procedure which sieves out the world class from the mediocre. This can't be done through boards. ( Imagine distinguishing between Einstein and a layman through a sum like 2+2=?)

2. The syllabus for IIT-JEE is practically same as that for the boards, yet instead of studying from the school teachers the students prefer to go to coachings. Ever wondered why? The answer may be bitter, shocking and rude to some people, yet it is absolutely true "Most of the school teachers are not competent to Handle IIT JEE questions"

3. Considering points 1 and 2, doesn't an argument against coaching tantamount to argument against quality education? An Argument in favor of mediocrity?

4. For those who wish to argue "Coaching is stressful", I would pose a counter question, "Is studying for engineering easy?". Even after 4 years of studying Engineering Mathematics at IIT Delhi , I still feel that it is not really that easy (Infact I am studying it once again!). If one thinks getting 80% in boards is a sufficient requirement to get in to IITs , try handing over any Advanced engineering mathematics books to all the students who score more than 80% (Including English! ...UP Boards!?!.. ;-)) and one of the two things will happen : (a) you already know (b) you are in for a surprise.

5. Isn't teaching in an engineering college also a form of coaching. Why not remove all the professors and leave the students alone with their text books? Let's try and experiment!

6. India is not the only country with competitive exams and coaching, Coaching exists in all major developed countries ... Hongkong (HKCEE), Russia (Moscow Tech. Entrance and several other university entrance examinations), USA (SAT, AP physics ...), UK (Cambridge physics), China(National Higher Education Entrance Examination), etc...You can research more and you will find more.

7. A good curriculum (Such as that required for IIT JEE ) leads to good brains. (Think of Russia, Ever wondered why the best problems books in physics (perhaps also in mathematics) are all by Russian authors (Irodov, Krotov, Bukhotsev, Shalnov, Savelyev,Pinsky ..Just to name a few), No other country has produced as many good problems in physics). Ever wondered about the reasons for Russia's (USSR) performance in Olympiads?

8. Great masters of mathematics and physics such as Euler, Lagrange, Hamilton, Bernoulli, Newton, Richard Feynman.... were both in the the "sinful" [sic] relationship of coach and pupil. "Unfortunately" Kapil Sibal was not there to curb their relationships.

9. I as a physics coach get the same feeling of joy in coaching my students as perhaps the great masters mentioned in point 6. (This is not to compare myself with them, Infact I rever them and I don't even have a fraction of their knowledge). I wonder who in the world should have a right to kill the source of my joy-my teaching to my pupils- and who in the world should have a right to kill the source of joy among my pupils - My teaching to my pupils ...

P.S. This article may be quoted as it is so long as there are no legal repercussions.
Disclaimer : I have written this with the understanding that it is fine under the right to "Freedom of Speech". In case anyone feels it to be unconstitutional or illegal, please report it to me and I might consider recalling it.

***End of My Post***
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Here is some further food for thought from someone whom I respect (Name will be given later after taking permission from Him)

LET US ANALYSE THE IIT POSITIONING FUNDAMENTALLY. WHAT IS IT IITs HAVE BEEN ACHIEVING OR ARE PURPORTED TO BE ACHIEVING.

• have an admission process to admit the brightest. bright from the point of view of being an excellent technocrat.
• IIT graduates will create higher level of productivity in the indian industry thus contributing to the ntion.
• IIT graduates have been going abroad and excelling in studies as well as in teaching & industry, thus bringing laurels to the country. their performance has created lot of interest in INDIA in the minds of WORLD BANK, INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORPORATION, VARIOUS FOREIGN INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS resulting in huge investments in India.

THE PROBLEMS IITs ARE FACING

· lack of faculty. IITs have a severe shortage of teaching staff. they are not just able to attract the right talent.

· IITs have no system for grooming teaching faculty or any staff.

· IIT faculty have not been able to earn as well as their students and feel frustrated. they are right, they deserve a much better salary.

· govt is not increasing the GRANTs and hence IITs are lagging behind the leading universities and colleges. IITs rank far behind in the world ranking . we can conclude that IIT graduates are doing much better than how IITs have been performing on a world level.

· SC / STs etc admitted to IITs do not undergo a transformation needed to represent the IIT brand. IITs have no system to achieve that. such students lower the IIT image in the international arena in general though exceptions are there.

· unlike the leading colleges and univs in the world IIT faculty get fewer opportunity to do industry relevant research and consultancy work.

the GOVT has done nothing to help IITs improve. my opinion is that excellence of IITs is not a success of the govt or the IIT system but is an expression of indian talent.

besides, the govt has hardly done anything to enable students from backward areas, villages to have good education so that even they can compete in the IITs.

NOW LET US ANALYSE THE PRESENT INITIATIVE OF MAKING THE 80% MARKS AS THE ELIGIBILITY FOR IIT-JEE BY THE MINISTER. BESIDES, THE MINISTER ALSO WISHES TO GIVE WEIGHTAGE TO BOARD MARKS FOR ADMISSION IN IITs.

• 80% marks will become restrictive for students from rural and backward areas.
• different boards have different patterns and therefore different boards have different scoring potential. BIHAR,MP,UP are just a few examples where scoring 80% + is much more difficult than CBSE.
• most boards may dilute their papers so that most of their students can score above 80%.
• the boards test something different from what IIT-JEE stands to test. giving weightage to board marks will defeat the purpose that IIT-JEE wishes to achieve.

MINISTER ALSO WISHES TO REIN IN TEACHING SHOPS / COACHING INSTITUTION. IS THIS THE CORRECT APPROACH ?

• coaching emerges from the need to excel relative to others. irrespective of anything coaching will continue to increase for all classes especially till XII & entrance exams.
• coaching is as much there even in the USA & EUROPE for all classes beginning with early childhood. there is huge coaching even for SAT-1,SAT2, TOEFL all over the world.
• maximum money spent on coaching in INDIA is for supplementing the regular school education rather than competitive exams.
• school teachers are more concerned about tuitions rather than teaching in the school. even in best schools , their board toppers do tuitions.
• solution to improve weak schooling is to improve teaching standards in school.