Two years of coaching classes daily after school hours, a gruelling study schedule extending up to 16 hours a day even during and after the board exams. Chasing the ubiquitous Indian middle class dream of getting into a premier Indian Institute of Technology, 18 years old Jaideep from Delhi has done it all and managed to even get a worthy rank in the engineering Joint Entrance Examination, but anxiety still looms large on his face, as he refreshes the news application on his phone every few hours, looking for clarity about the admission process this session.
“I don’t know what is going to happen when it comes to counselling,” Jaideep said, sharing his concerns about the seat allocation process of the IITs, which is done through a counselling system where students with better ranks are given first preference to choose an institution and course. “I hope they start with joint counselling this year and save us the trouble of running from one city to another,” he said.
Joint counselling
Like Jaideep, more than 13 lakh students registered this year for the JEE which is the gateway to the prestigious IITs. The results were announced recently and students are now waiting for clarity on the counselling procedure. On March 25, the ministry of human resources development said that joint counselling sessions will be introduced from this session with the National Institutes of Technology participating as well, and not just the IITs, even as the latter expressed their inability to implement the system. An official word is still awaited.
For years, the admission process for IITs and the NITs have been held through separate counselling sessions, and often on coinciding dates, causing much trouble to the aspirants. With migration from one institute to other going on even months after the results are out, many candidates often resort to blocking seats in a "safe" institution while waiting for the waiting-list to clear up for their preferred institution.
Activists as well as students have been demanding for a common session, and the campaign has gained momentum in the last three years. This has also resulted in an online petition that has gathered more than 6,000 signatures already, coupled with an open letter to the ministry for HRD seeking clarity on the admission procedure.
Little has, however, been achieved so far even after interventions from the Delhi High Court and constant back and forth between the ministry of HRD and the IITs.
Wasted progress
"It is a pity that in the last nearly seven months, the needful has not been achieved. It is felt that the IITs also have a lot to explain and for which we give them also an opportunity," The Delhi HC had said in its order in March.
The ministry informed the court that the common counselling system will be implemented from the 2015-2016 session contradicting the position of IITs that it will not be possible to thoroughly test the software for common counselling, developed by National Informatics Centre in time for it to be implemented from the immediate session.
The issue with the software is not a new excuse as it has been used multiple times by the IITs, said Mahesh Sharma, editor of the education magazine Careers360, who started the petition. “First, the software was being developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing before the High Court intervened last year, but that was abandoned,” he said. “Now, it is being prepared by the National Informatics Centre, but the intent of actually adopting it is missing.”
The software developed by C-DAC was not put to use because it was not tested in time by IIT-Delhi, the then-organiser of the counselling process. NIC was roped in to develop the software in 2014.
Calling out on the same, the Delhi HC also noted, “In fact, we have today also enquired from the counsel for IIT Bombay, as to why if the present faculty of IITs is not able to devise the software for common counselling, help of ex-IITians who are reported to be occupying top positions in the best Technology Companies of the world, cannot be garnered."
According to Sharma, the IITs are unwilling to implement it because there are fears that it might dilute their brand image since some students could prefer NITs in the counselling.
Wasted seats
However, joint counselling has obvious benefits for making life much easier for aspirants like Jaideep. Firstly, students will not have to rush from one city to the other. “The IITs and NITs are all located in different parts of this country,” Sharma said. “First, students run from one counselling session to another and then they run for admission in different institutions. If it happens in one place, they would only have to make one trip and be done with it.” Secondly, it will ensure that no applicant blocks extra seats as only one seat will be allotted to each student. Which, in turn will help in cutting down on vacant seats, thus gaining more engineers from the existing infrastructure.
“1% of all seats at the IITs remain empty and some 500-600 seats at the NITs after the process is over and students free up their reserved seats.” Sharma said. “Joint counselling could solve this problem and give us more engineers. These institutions are our national resources, we are letting them go underutilised.”
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
“I don’t know what is going to happen when it comes to counselling,” Jaideep said, sharing his concerns about the seat allocation process of the IITs, which is done through a counselling system where students with better ranks are given first preference to choose an institution and course. “I hope they start with joint counselling this year and save us the trouble of running from one city to another,” he said.
Joint counselling
Like Jaideep, more than 13 lakh students registered this year for the JEE which is the gateway to the prestigious IITs. The results were announced recently and students are now waiting for clarity on the counselling procedure. On March 25, the ministry of human resources development said that joint counselling sessions will be introduced from this session with the National Institutes of Technology participating as well, and not just the IITs, even as the latter expressed their inability to implement the system. An official word is still awaited.
For years, the admission process for IITs and the NITs have been held through separate counselling sessions, and often on coinciding dates, causing much trouble to the aspirants. With migration from one institute to other going on even months after the results are out, many candidates often resort to blocking seats in a "safe" institution while waiting for the waiting-list to clear up for their preferred institution.
Activists as well as students have been demanding for a common session, and the campaign has gained momentum in the last three years. This has also resulted in an online petition that has gathered more than 6,000 signatures already, coupled with an open letter to the ministry for HRD seeking clarity on the admission procedure.
Little has, however, been achieved so far even after interventions from the Delhi High Court and constant back and forth between the ministry of HRD and the IITs.
Wasted progress
"It is a pity that in the last nearly seven months, the needful has not been achieved. It is felt that the IITs also have a lot to explain and for which we give them also an opportunity," The Delhi HC had said in its order in March.
The ministry informed the court that the common counselling system will be implemented from the 2015-2016 session contradicting the position of IITs that it will not be possible to thoroughly test the software for common counselling, developed by National Informatics Centre in time for it to be implemented from the immediate session.
The issue with the software is not a new excuse as it has been used multiple times by the IITs, said Mahesh Sharma, editor of the education magazine Careers360, who started the petition. “First, the software was being developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing before the High Court intervened last year, but that was abandoned,” he said. “Now, it is being prepared by the National Informatics Centre, but the intent of actually adopting it is missing.”
The software developed by C-DAC was not put to use because it was not tested in time by IIT-Delhi, the then-organiser of the counselling process. NIC was roped in to develop the software in 2014.
Calling out on the same, the Delhi HC also noted, “In fact, we have today also enquired from the counsel for IIT Bombay, as to why if the present faculty of IITs is not able to devise the software for common counselling, help of ex-IITians who are reported to be occupying top positions in the best Technology Companies of the world, cannot be garnered."
According to Sharma, the IITs are unwilling to implement it because there are fears that it might dilute their brand image since some students could prefer NITs in the counselling.
Wasted seats
However, joint counselling has obvious benefits for making life much easier for aspirants like Jaideep. Firstly, students will not have to rush from one city to the other. “The IITs and NITs are all located in different parts of this country,” Sharma said. “First, students run from one counselling session to another and then they run for admission in different institutions. If it happens in one place, they would only have to make one trip and be done with it.” Secondly, it will ensure that no applicant blocks extra seats as only one seat will be allotted to each student. Which, in turn will help in cutting down on vacant seats, thus gaining more engineers from the existing infrastructure.
“1% of all seats at the IITs remain empty and some 500-600 seats at the NITs after the process is over and students free up their reserved seats.” Sharma said. “Joint counselling could solve this problem and give us more engineers. These institutions are our national resources, we are letting them go underutilised.”