Are coaching factories tarnishing brand IIT?

Bhamy Shenoy

At a recent event organised at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chennai, Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman expressed disenchantment with its graduates. “We are not likely to recruit them any longer,” he said, adding his company preferred students from other colleges, who, though less endowed, were more amenable to company training. IIT guys tend to think too much of themselves.

Reality is that brand IIT thrives on its past reputation. The Tata Steel chief, recalling his recent interaction with some final-year students of IIT Chennai, observed they could not even name the authors of the subject books they were supposed to have studied. He later found out that the students were able to clear the tests without having to read books. He was in for further shock on discovering that their teachers were no more knowledgeable about the subjects they were supposed to teach.

A reason for this sorry state is in the method students adopt to get admitted to IITs. On the one hand IIT admissions have been praised for being free from corruption and undue interference. Surveys by foreign universities ranked IITs quite high.

And yet a section of corporate India is sceptical of IIT graduates. Why? Because most of them resort to coaching shops to gain entry into IIT. Tough standards set by the examining board drive students to coaching shops, to secure high ranks in the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and, once in IIT, these students tend to ignore the rigours of higher education. Around 95 per cent of the candidates seeking admission into IITs go through coaching shops, paying high fees. The amount of money spent by IIT aspirants attending the coaching factories is about Rs20 billion per year. About 160,000 students take JEEs and 3,500 are admitted to the IITs.

The distorted impact of assembly line coaching taken by candidates is indicated by the percentage of students admitted to IITs from different states in southern India. During
a recent year under review, 979 candidates from the south zone secured admission. Of them, 769 were from Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh may well be producing bright IIT entrants, but those from the other  states can’t be that poor. Mushrooming of IIT tutorials and coaching factories in Hyderabad may have much to do with the JEE results.

During the past 21 years, coaching for IIT admission has become the norm. Candidates who are into IIT coaching right from their final schooling years have put IIT tuition
before their studies.  The all-important entrance tests system has resulted in producing IIT aspirants with a one-track mindset. By the time they start studies at IITs, they feel burnt out. These students are good at the technique of answering questions, without grasping the underlying concepts. IIT professors have written many papers criticising the present competitive testing procedure.

Instead of giving ranks purely on the basis of JEE performance, IITs can adapt multiple criteria, giving a weighted score. Some of the criteria are JEE test scores, some marks for showing leadership qualities, marks for demonstrating social concern and talents in sports, arts, etc.

Bhamy Shenoy is an alumnus of IIT Madras and an energy expert.