Students up in arms as Sibal scraps IIT-JEE entrance exam from 2013

Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal has announced the government panel’s decision to scrap all engineering entrance exams from 2013-14 and follow a single entrance exam with a merit list to be followed by all IITs and other engineering colleges in the country. 

The system already on anvil for medical entrance from next year, will be implemented for all engineering colleges. But the decision evoked immediate opposition from all IIT students who said they would go on strike and boycott classes from October 14.

On Anil Kakodkar Committee recommendation to hike tuition fee five times in all IITs, the minister said the present fee of rs 50,000 will be maintained but a bond stipulating that the private companies recruiting these engineers will have to deduct the extra amount spent on their education by the government.

Similar to Tax Deduction at source, the remaining amount spent on each student will be paid back to the government from the employed graduates of the IITs.

From the entrance hopping of nearly 150 exams every year, only one exam applies to all. The government will scrap all such exams, including the IIT-JEE and the AIEEE.

The decision was arrived at after a meeting of IIT Council (IIT directors) and officials from the ministry of human resource development (HRD) on Monday, chaired by Union HRD minister Sibal.

“There will be one merit list. Institutes, including the IITs, will have to pick up students from this list,” Sibal said. “The list will be based on Standard 12 marks and the entrance test results. Also, students will be counselled before they choose a course.”

Those from the SC/ST and OBC categories and students going for higher education or joining the faculty of the IITs will be exempted from the payment of the fee.

“At present, the fees are nominal because of government subsidy,” he said. “The actual cost works out to nearly Rs6-8 lakh per student. Students can surely pay back this amount in easy instalments, considering the plush jobs they land with once they get their degrees.”

The degrees will be in a DMAT format with the amount each student has to pay the government and the future employers will have to deduct the amount and pay the government directly, he said.

The decision will be sent to all state governments for approval, Sibal said.

They have surfaced on Facebook as iitians.org and said on the social networking site that the quality of IITs would be affected under the new admission policy.

“We are requesting not just the IITs, but also students of classes 11 and 12 from other colleges, professors and teachers to join our protest,” said an IIT student associated with the group.