New Delhi:
Following in the footsteps of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, the Senate body of IIT Delhi has rejected the new IIT entrance exam format announced by Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on May 28. The Senate, comprising of 200 faculty members, unanimously rejected his proposal yesterday.
"We have rejected the proposal by the HRD Ministry. In the coming year, we will continue with the current entrance format and from 2014 we will hold our own entrance test like IIT Kanpur," said Sanajeev Sanghi, a Senate member and the President of the IIT faculty forum.
(Read IIT Delhi's resolution)Sources have told NDTV that after Kanpur and Delhi, IIT Bombay and Kharagpur are also likely to follow suit and hold their own entrance exams. IIT Bombay Senate is expected to hold a meeting on this on July 6, sources add.
IIT Delhi Senate's strong stance comes in the midst of talks of a softening of stance by the ministry, following the meeting of the All India Faculty Federation of the IITs with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week. The Prime Minister is said to have conveyed to them that the autonomy of the IITs will be upheld. But on Wednesday, the minister hit out at the dissenting bodies saying if the IITs have a better idea, he was open to it.
"The changing of stance is hugely worrying. We are confused and angry with what the minister is doing" said Professor AK Mittal, the Secretary of the All India Faculty Forum.
The news of the IITs declaring their own entrance tests isn't going down well with IIT aspirants. "How should we react to it? Each IIT will hold their exam and we will have to take so many then. I also suspect the topper in Delhi will also be the topper in Kanpur. Then what happens. I may not stand a chance in that case," said Swati, a worried student, preparing for the IIT JEE just months away.
"This is just not acceptable. How can they inform us about the change in pattern when the exams are six months away? Now we need to prepare for both," said an anxious Class XII student Kanupriya. She now has to study for her boards as well as the IIT entrance test. "The minister said the exam is going to relieve us of stress. But this is double the stress. We have two exams," said Pramesha, another student spending close to eight hours a day on her IIT-JEE preps.
While students worry about studying for both their boards and the entrance test, the big question is will there be a domino effect with other IIT Senates taking the same stand as IIT Kanpur and now Delhi? "We do believe so. IIT Bombay is likely to join hands with us," said AK Mittal.
On May 28, the HRD Ministry had announced a new format for all centrally-funded engineering colleges, including the 15 IITs and all the National Institutes of Technology (NITs). As per the proposal, equal weightage will to be given to marks obtained in the Class XII examinations and those of the entrance tests. Engineering colleges will use a 40:30:30 formula - with Class XII board results counting for 40 per cent, and the two stages of the entrance exam counting for 30 per cent each. The new entrance format, meant to kick in from 2013, also combined both the main test and the advance test to a single day.