A Proposal to Strengthen IIT JEE

To:  The President of India

RTI Act :: Large Scale Bungling in IIT-JEE 06

Denied Admission to 994 Eligible Meritorious Superiors; Illegally Admitted Inferior 994

The Joint Entrance examination (JEE) 2006 conducted by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur for admissions to engineering/science courses in IITs/BHU-IT/ISMU was the first examination which was conducted in the backdrop of RTI Act 2005 and all the candidates received the marks-sheets. This has uncovered startling revelations that meritorious candidates were rejected and inferiors selected. The large scale bungling has come to surface through information disclosure, on CIC directive, by which 994 students have found themselves illegally dis-qualified in spite of scoring huge marks over the qualified candidates.

To elucidate the startling revelations by which inferior students have been selected by rejecting more qualified students, kindly look at -
http://eklavyajee06.blogspot.com/
http://cns.bu.edu/~gsc/Rajeev_Kumar/Rajeev_Kumar_JEEProposal.pdf

A Proposal to Strengthen IIT JEE

Aimed @ Merit with Transparency and Accountability

This proposal is in two (intermingled) parts; first, we detail the motivation behind these proposals which are based on (i) learning from past three years’ experiences, which we gained from JEE 2006 to JEE 2008, and (ii) carrying a comprehensive post-data analysis of marks-data, which was received by invoking Right To Information (RTI) Act 2005. It has been established that JEE selections in 2006 were certainly based on subjective likes/dislikes, while JEE 2007 and 2008 selections were flawed though consistent.

Therefore, we suggest workable solutions which would make the JEE selection processes/system transparent, accountable and known a priori to the candidates. The proposals eliminate the need/scope of making any subjective decision at any stage and promote decisions-making with the participation of publicly available knowledge sources. We identify the following major issues ::

Technical Issues ::

1. Introduce a cutoff determination procedure which gives meaningful, effective and stable subject cutoffs over the years.
2. Invite public participation in exploring and validating the correct solutions before evaluation of answer scripts.
3. Set proper/balanced questions within the syllabi. Facilitate wider dispersion of marks.
4. Introduce differential grading for all the multiple choices in each question.
5. Eliminate manual corrections. Provide carbon copy of ORS to candidates.


Administrative Issues ::

6. Constitute a core group to continuously review and (re-)formulate JEE policy.
7. Do not entrust raw and coded personal data of candidates in a single hand. Do not allow merging of such data before finalization of the results.
8. Publish complete information (including cutoff procedures and calculation of cutoffs) in the information brochure in such a way that XII class students can understand; delete those pieces of information which confuse/mislead.
9. Disseminate complete information throughout the year through websites.
10. Publish questions along with detailed model answers on the examination day.
11. Publish marks of candidates at the time of result declaration.
12. Reduce time from examination-conduct to result-declaration.
13. Facilitate fully on-line admission counseling and fill all (including unoccupied) seats by sliding the admitted candidate-list and making wait-lists. Arrange a second counseling within a week of the start of the semester.
14. Engage people of proven record and integrity. Provide value-based JEE administration. Strengthen vigilance.
15. Settle disputes during the period from result-declaration to start of counseling.
16. Amend declaration in application form to have a choice of not-waiving the right to challenge the irregularities, if perceived by a candidate.

In rest of this concept (white) paper, we highlight the issues with sample specific cases and suggest workable solutions. All the proposed solutions can be accomplished with minor changes in the existing system at little additional cost. All the data used in this document is for general category and/or combined data, as applicable.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The A Proposal to Strengthen IIT JEE Petition to The President of India was created by Students, IIT Alumni and written by Rajeev Kumar (rajeevkumar.cse@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.