IITJEE – “Reforms”

“The IIT-Delhi Alumni Association president Somnath Bharti maintained  that … “the IITs should have complete control (not only academic) over the JEE (advanced) exam, and there should be proper debate – based upon the data obtained from school boards – on the feasibility of giving weightage to school board marks in the JEE (mains).”

– Govt may soften stand, asks IIT-D to call meeting, Vanita Srivastava, Hindustan Times, June 20, 2012 

I have been watching all the action in the IITJEE imbroglio between the IITs and the government from the sidelines and it has been very interesting, for it gave me a clue as to how society gets polarized. This is the first time I have come across the word “data” in this debate which has been more like a contest in name-calling!

The vicious war appears to be on its last leg. The last man standing is not the government, propelled by the control-freaky politicians (as per the dominant narrative) but the self-styled and self-serving guardians of the IIT brand name – its administration, its faculty, its alumni, its current and future students (and their parents), and the coaching institutions.

The argument is IITJEE is such a fantastic filter of quality that modifying it, even if it be in the interest of the society as a whole, is deleterious. This has been asserted a million times but not once – mark my words, “not once” – has anyone offered to do a correlation between IITJEE ranks and the long-term performance of the alumni, particularly in engineering. Ironically, this when there is a demand to do a correlation study for “proper debate – based on data obtained from school boards”. That is, to preserve the status of IITJEE, there should be debate based on data, but when it comes to the performance of IIT graduates, no such data collection is mooted even sideways.

After all, in the current world of “if-it-cannot-be-or-is-not-measured-it-does-not-exist”, there is no escape from establishing a correlation as I have mooted. But, is anyone listening? When the noise has not been made how can anyone listen? Hence this post. 

I am an IIT graduate and have availed of all the benefits (heavy subsidies from GoI). I followed the typical route of my tribe, with some detours here and there. Now, I am situated fairly OK in my life, but untypical of an IIT alumnus I have not veered off my chosen field of engineering and with God’s blessings I have avoided the IIM route. Therefore, if I have a beef with IITJEE, it is as an insider, admittedly a has-been-insider. Put whatever penalty as you want on this status of mine, but please do listen to the noise.

As a first step, try to compile data on, at each IIT and across all of them and over many years, how many students ranked the highest in IITJEE finished their course at the top of their graduating class, department/specialization-wise, and also track the careers of all the IITians. Analyze the data and try to get a positive correlation. Take due account of all the real and imagined biases. From my experience I can tell you that such correlations, if any, would be very weak.

At the IIT I joined, in my batch, the highest IITJEE ranker was at No. 4, mechanical engineering. Obviously, he was given the place of pride in our class, but only for about a year, or two at best. After that, while we all agreed that he was smart/brilliant there was no question of looking up to him. The premium on his IITJEE rank could not be sustained.

He had competition from within the mechanical engineering department. Guess what, the student who topped IIT that year was “Direct Admission”, not through IITJEE, because he was a rank-holder in his university before entering IIT. He was the Gold Medalist! This is not a matter of shame for the No. 4 ranker in IITJEE, you must understand. I believe such instances are repeated at all IITs, across all branches and over the years. The IITJEE performance is a poor indicator of subsequent performance.

The above gives the lie to the implicit pronouncement: “If you do not come through IITJEE, you are not fit for IIT education.” Acknowledging the potential for variations as in the above example is what is lacking in the current debate that is coming to a close. As another example, I was not among the best as I was bottom trawled and I do not think I did all that bad. And, GoI subsidized my education! Thank you so much, you sucker!

If one wants to endorse the variations, the net has to be cast wide. And, as the net is cast wider, the risks of catching the “undeserved” is indeed higher, but not unmanageably so.  However, the resistance to “reforms” (the quotes imply that the word has no value connotations!) seeks to avoid these risks altogether.

In this perspective, the thing that jumps out of the IITJEE issue is that IITs do not have such trust in their systems and have no confidence in their risk management abilities. They want the best and their guarantee is merely that the entrants will not slip too badly.

What I suggest is this. Settle on whatever system that can be agreed upon. But, commission an independent long-term study (both horizontal and vertical, of at least 25 year tenure) and see what kind of correlation obtains between IITJEE ranks and life-time performance. One condition I would like to impose is the study will exclude all those IIT graduates who jump off the engineering bandwagon, onto fields like IT industry and management. 


Why 25 years? Just to give a meaningful set of data for robust analysis. Moreover, the first demand for change has come after 60 years plus. Perhaps the next time it would come just when the next “reforms” movement is about to start!

Let us start the study, to validate or set aside IITJEE, or take a middle path. Otherwise, the next time round also the debate will only be going around in circles.

Raghuram Ekambaram