TNN,
Mumbai Edition, 02nd Aug 2008
Mumbai: The increase in the number of seats at
the IITs may have spelt good news, but entry levels have
fallen at these hallowed institutions. If the total seats
went up from 5,537 to 6,992 this year, the general category
cut-off has fallen from 206 to 180 out of 489. Also, only
a handful of ST students qualified for the six new IITs.
Despite the “generous’’ relaxations the
IITs provide for the quota candidates, 397 SC/ST seats are
going abegging and almost 35 OBC seats are vacant. IIT-Madras
director P V Indiresan said, “The drop in cut-offs
is significant. One reason could be that the IITs took in
more students. But there are other concerns—the JEE
is outdated for one. Also, the quality of quota candidates
admitted is being compromised as more students need to be
taken in.’’
SORRY
FIGURES
Overall cut-off marks have fallen from 206 to 180 this year
as the number of seats has gone up by 1,455. The cut-off
for SC/STs is a mere 104
3.11 lakh students took the JEE this year for 6,992 seats
in 13 IITs. Of these, 414 seats were reserved for ST candidates,
but only 159 were shortlisted. Similarly, only 690 were
shortlisted for the 832 SC seats. The OBC figures were 1,099
out of 1,134. This means that 432 seats have gone abegging
this year
The top ranker in the general category scored 433 marks
while the last student to make it scored 180. Among SCs
& STs, the toppers scored 322 and 292
Experts say that a span of 14 marks can accommodate nearly
1,500 general category students. Assuming a cut-off of even
150, it means that nearly 4,500 general category students
have conceivably lost out on an IIT education
Times
View:
To
let over 430 seats in IITs go vacant is a criminal waste
of infrastructure (such as faculty and physical facilities).
Reservations are meant to give disadvantaged sections of
society a boost. But where quotas cannot be filled because
there aren’t enough suitable candidates, the cut-off
for the general category should be relaxed so that all seats
are used up—the cut-off will still be higher than
for SC/STs, so no one can argue that it will dilute academic
standards. As with airline seats and hotel rooms, these
seats are ‘perishable’, they must be filled
the same year. This should not affect next year’s
quota.
CLASS
SPACE GOES ABEGGING AT IITs
Though
Cut-Offs Drop, 255 ST And 142 SC Seats Remain Vacant. They
Will Not Be Converted To The General Category
Mumbai: Union HRD minister Arjun Singh
may not have dreamt of this when he announced his plan to
start six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs): just
a handful of students from Scheduled Tribes (ST)—considered
among the most backward classes—has made it to the
new institutions for 2008-09. Worse, most seats reserved
for SCs and STs in the older IITs are also vacant.
Of the 3.11 lakh students who took the Joint Entrance Exam
(JEE), 8,514 were STs and 28,393 SCs. In all, the 13 IITs
have 414 seats for ST candidates, but only 159 students
were shortlisted after the JEE. Similarly, for the 832 seats
reserved for SCs across 13 campuses, only 690 students qualified.
While some SC/ST seats in the older IITs will be filled
by students who were admitted to a preparatory course in
2007, there will be no such admission in the newer IITs.
There will be an “aberration’’ for the
new IITs in this regard, said IIT-Delhi director Surendra
Prasad.
Each IIT sets aside 15% seats for SC and 7.5% seats for
ST students. The reserved category students were shortlisted
after the IITs relaxed entry norms drastically for them.
For instance, if the first candidate in the general category
scored 433, his counterpart in the ST merit list scored
292. If one looks lower down the order, the students who
came last in the SC and ST categories scored 104 each, with
marks as low as 8 for the SC candidate and 12 for the ST
candidate in physics.
The scenario for the new entrants—Other Backward Classes—is
rather different. No relaxation of marks was required to
admit OBC students and those seats were also not filled.
The IITs, which have already been lowering admission levels
for SCs and STs, now feel that with the number of seats
for these categories going up, while general category seats
stay constant, a larger population of students will have
to be taken in, probably at rock-bottom scores.
IIT-Bombay director Ashok Misra, who had pointed this out
to the Veerappa Moily Oversight Committee, feels the issue
has been completely overlooked. “To take in so many
reserved category students, admission criteria will have
to be relaxed,’’ he told TOI.
The reserved categories’ tale keeps repeating itself
over the years. Last year, the aggregate score of the last
ranker in the general category was 206; the same scores
for SC and ST candidates stood at 126. Several reserved
category students who scored below 126 were also taken in
for the year-long preparatory course.
A 1993 report by ex-IIT-Madras director P V Indiresan and
ex-IIT-Delhi director N C Nigam dwelled on the impact of
quotas in IITs.
“Nearly 50% of the reserved seats remain vacant as
SC/ST students are unable to secure the minimum threshold
marks (two-thirds of the last candidate admitted in the
general category). Of those admitted, almost 25% are asked
to leave due to poor performance,’’ the 1993
report said.
A former IIT-Kharagpur director said the increase in SC/ST
seats is likely to create a scenario of the 1980s when the
government had forced the IITs to admit students who had
even scored zero. Indiresan added, “Reservation has
already started affecting these institutes. The IITs may
not admit this in public, but a lot of faculty members do
acknowledge that the quality of reserved category students
has fallen.’’
MAPPING
THE GAP
The
first-ranked candidate has scored 170 marks more than the
candidate ranked 1001 but the competition gets tougher after
that; the difference in scores between candidates ranked
1001 and 2001 is merely 27 marks and goes to show how there
is hardly any gap between hundreds of students. The score
pyramid flattens out even more as one goes lower; there
is a difference of merely 17 marks between candidates ranked
3001 and 4001 and there is an even narrower gap —
of merely 13 marks — between candidates ranked 4001
and 5001. The trend is similar for OBC candidates but student
scores are more spaced out in case of SC and ST candidates.
