Joint Seat Allocation Authority, has been the buzzword over the last few weeks for lakhs of students. Has this been one of the best changes in the system? Or, did it add to the confusion of the already existing process? How did the option of being able to fill in more than 500 choices affect the students? What could have influenced the minds of the 18 year olds while making the choices? Is it just the brand name of the IITs that ultimately matters to the students? The fundamental education is put at stake, in a bid a to coach students for the entrance exams. Where will this lead to?

Read on to know Prof. Aakash Chaudhry’s take on the scenario that looms over the engineering field.

One of the most sensible things the JEE authorities have done
this year was, to conduct combined seat allocation
process. I think it helped in preventing the seats going waste in IITs.
This had been a problem for some years especially since the time more number
of IITs came into existence; a student would block an IIT seat and then
join an NIT in his/her home state. This year, however,
thanks to the Joint allocation this problem has reduced considerably.

But the joint allocation was not an easy sail. Though the options were
available under one roof, it caused a lot of chaos and confusion for the
students. Most 17 and 18 year olds do not have the maturity to understand complex
matrix of options and new changes to fill in appropriate choices according to their ranks.

Choosing a college is a big decision for children, and more so for
parents.  The selection they make involves a
lot of discussion and guidance from their family. One thing however, that is
common to students across the country is their attachment to the native states.
This influences their decisions more than anything else. Apart from this, other
factors too, like their ranks, the availability of seats in their preferred
stream, too plays a role in deciding the choice of college.

Many students get into an IIT just for the brand name that comes with
it, even though it may be Ropar or Bhubaneswar. This could be a good
thing. If one looks at the example of IIT Guwahati, they will understand. Over
the years it has developed to have recognition as one among the top IITs
despite being a relatively new IIT. However some still would like to stick to the
top older ones and just accept whatever branch they get.

The option of filling up to 500 choices added to the confusion, simply
because at that age students cannot understand the logic and make their choices
accordingly. The fact that parents influence their decision is good as well as
a bad state. It is good because parents are more mature and usually take the
right decision for their children. Bad because ultimately they tend to force
their opinion or aspirations, and the child may never
develop a sense of decision making in their lives.

Funnily enough, one can never understand what, apart from the parent’s
opinion that influences the choice of the student.

Ultimately getting into the IIT is what matters to them, which is not
very difficult these days with all the tutoring, motivation, guidance etc. that has become easily available now. The education system has been dumbed down to
a great extent with dummy-schools, so cracking an entrance exam is not a
distant dream anymore. Any student can easily score ‘A’ grade, and eventually crack the entrances and get a rank.

But in a bid to just crack these entrance exams students in some these
coaching hubs, don’t attend school. The dummy schools and proxy attendance, is
something I am against. It ruins the students’ overall growth and
ultimately their academic potential as well. What does this lead to? Where will
we head to? What are we trying to achieve? Why does it have to boil down to a point where the students learn to crack the JEE but not sustain the life and rigour of  IITs? 

Answers for this are not easy to find. The flaw in the system needs to be changed. How? And, when? These again have no right answers.

Mr. Aakash Chaudhry is the, Director of Aakash Educational Services Pvt Ltd, Delhi.