Patna: Taking strong exception to the proposed amendment in eligibility criterion for entrance examination for IIT and JEE, RJD chief and former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Tuesday requested the Centre to reconsider the proposal.
In a letter to Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, a copy of which was made available to the press, the RJD chief said there was a lot of anguish and frustration among the students and guardians in Bihar over the proposed amendment.
The Human Resource Development Ministry has asked all the Directors of the IITs to prepare proposals with respect to amendments in the criteria for JEE and IIT entrance examinations fixing 80 per cent marks at the 10+2 level as eligibility for taking these examinations.
Describing as "great injustice" to the students hailing from rural areas if the proposed amendment comes into force, Lalu Prasad was quoted by news agency UNI as saying that the marks and grading system were not uniform throughout the country and varied from board to board and state to state.
Many poor and other students who did not secure high percentage marks in Bihar School Examination Board also got through IIT and JEE examinations owing to their talent and hard labour, he noted.
In fact a large number of students from rural and poor economic background had been achieving huge success in these prestigious examinations for many years, he added.
Lalu alleged that by making this amendment, the Centre would inflict great injustice to such students and would deprive them of their due share in pursuing higher technical studies.
The RJD leader requested Sibal not to carry out the proposed amendment and retain the existing system intact, which was "time and talent tested".
IIT proposal conspiracy against tribals: JMM
Criticising Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal's proposal to raise eligibility for entrance tests to IITs to 80 per cent in Class XII examinations, Jharkhand MUkti Morcha (JMM) on Tuesday said it was a conspiracy to deprive tribals.
"The move is a conspiracy hatched by Congress to deprive adivasis from seeking admission in the premier technical institutes of the country," JMM General Secretary Ramesh Hansda was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.
"Is it not double standards by the Congress ?" he asked referring to the Centre's recent decision to withdraw 1 lakh cases related to forest and railway departments pending against tribals in Jharkhand," he was further quoted as saying.
If the proposal is put into practice, he feared that tribal students would be deprived of the benefit of the reservation policy and demanded its rejection 'forthwith'.
"The government is not at all bothered about the development of tribals but only wants to use the community as a vote-bank," he added.
Sibal's proposal undemocratic: AIDSO
The All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) on Tuesday opposed the proposal of Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal to raise the entrance bar for IIT exams from 60 per cent to 80 per cent and said it would close the door of the esteemed institution to a large number of competent students.
Terming it an "undemocratic" and "anti-education step", it said "history is witness to the fact so many great leaders and mentors, who had given new directions to the world, were average in their student life.
"Now this step will not only put a hindrance in the path of progress and knowledge, but also narrow down the scope of able students in getting admission into IITs."
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AIDSO said on the one hand, the Ministry was implementing grade system in class 10 to ease the pressure on students, on the other hand it was raising the competition bar for IIT exams which would put many bright students' future in the dark.
Both were contradictory moves, it added.
Moreover, it was well known that few government school children managed to score eighty per cent marks in the board exams and only public school children, who paid hefty amounts in schools and for tuition, managed to get such marks. This was not a true yardstick to judge a student's true potential, it said in a release.
Far from the Minister's contention that it would cut down on the role of the mushrooming coaching market, it would actually boost the coaching market business, AIDSO said.
It said though the government was projecting itself as pro-education by announcing that it would open more and more universities in the country on the Knowledge Commission recommendations, at the same time it was mooting such a step which went against this image.
The organisation appealed to all students and people to come together and launch a nation-wide stir against the proposed move.
Mayawati attacks move to raise IIT entrance bar
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday expressed strong reservations against Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal's move to raise the bar for IIT entrance examination from the existing 60 percent to 80 per cent. Sibal, however, on Tuesday afternoon appeared to backtrack from his stand.
Terming the proposal to raise the cut off for appearing in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as "pro-elitist" and "anti-student", Mayawati said that she would oppose it tooth and nail.
In a letter shot off to Sibal, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister demanded "immediate withdrawal of the proposal" while urging him "not to initiate any education-related policy change without taking into account its impact on the student community".
"Evidently, the move is aimed at depriving a large chunk of society from getting the opportunity to seek entry into the country's premier technical institution," Mayawati said in a statement issued on Tuesday evening.
Dismissing Sibal's claim that the move was aimed at bringing down the number of applicants to the entrance examination, Mayawati said: "It would have made more sense if suitable amendments were carried out in the entrance examination to enable applicants to appear without having to attend expensive coaching institutes."
She wondered "why the system was designed to encourage coaching institutes which only the rich and the affluent could afford" while adding "it was high time the central government paid some attention to the need for reforms in the entrance examination".
In her letter to Sibal, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister said "the issue is not that the 80 per cent aggregate requisite for the entrance examination would reduce the rush for the examination, but the most pertinent question is to know who is the Government hoping to benefit through the move?"
She went on to add: "To me it appears that this restrictive policy is intended to benefit a particular class of people and deprive a whole lot of ordinary people."
Sibal, however, told reporters in New Delhi: "The eligibility criteria to appear in the joint entrance exam (IIT-JEE) is decided by the IITs themselves. The government has no role to play and any report which suggests that there is a proposal to allow only those who obtain above 80 per cent marks in their Class 12 examination to sit for the JEE is baseless."
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