Committees to review IIT admissions, syllabus.
In an effort to make students take the Class XII board exam more seriously and eliminate the need for coaching classes, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) wants to raise the eligibility condition for admission into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) from next year by increasing the minimum marks in Class XII required to sit for the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) from the current 60 per cent.
"The present criterion is that students need to secure 60 per cent in Class-XII for appearing in IIT-JEE but this could be raised up to 80 to 85 per cent," minister Kapil Sibal told reporters after chairing a meeting here today of the IIT Council, the apex decision making body for the elite institutes.
He thinks this will also check the growth of coaching centres, which thriving on imparting coaching to students for the IIT-JEE, to which students give more weightage than the Class XII examination. “We wish to get rid of professional coaching for medical and engineering exams,” said Sibal.
MHRD has also appointed a five-member committee to suggest a roadmap for the IITs for 2020 that will be chaired by Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar.
Another three-member committee comprising T Ramasamy, secretary, science and technology Secretary; M K Bhan, secretary, department of biotechnology; and Samir Brahmachari, Director-General, Council for Scientific and Industrial research has been asked to examine the entire admission process and the IIT curriculum. It would give its report by January.
“Nothing is decided as yet. It will take the committee two-three months to come out with its report,” said an IIT director. All proposed changes would be implemented by 2011.
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The IIT-JEE system was revised three years earlier, when the eligibility criteria was raised to 60 per cent at Class XII level for taking the entrance exam. Sibal has also mooted the idea of IITs starting courses in humanities and medicine.
The income bar for the merit-cum-means scholarship offered to needy entrants into the IITs is being raised. The criterion was Rs 2 lakh per annum of family income and this is being changed to Rs 4.5 lakh. The IIT Council also discussed the likely impact of foreign universities and their entry into India, after the government passes the Foreign Education Providers Bill. Some of the IITs are interested in collaborating with the foreign universities, Sibal said. To attract more foreign students, the government will reduce the fee structure for students from South Asian and African countries.
MHRD will also plans increase the grants to IITs to promote research, besides changing the norms to attract investment from foreign universities, so that any overseas institute can invest speedily in the IITs.
At present, it takes about three years under the Foreign Currency Regulation Act for a foreign institute to invest in an Indian institute for research and other collaborations.
There will also be a performance-related incentive scheme for the IIT directors. Sibal said there was no discussion on the pay structure issue at the meeting and that the Council is scheduled to meet once in every six months.