The IIT Selection System

The IITs were established with a vision to provide the country with institutes that would nourish the most intelligent individuals of the country through good education and resources to contribute in the development of the country. The IITs have used a fierce selection system since they established and grew to the present stage. There have been frequent revisions in the selection system and the recent trend is to change the selection system each year itself. The stress however remains on the fact that a student should be excellent at physics, chemistry and mathematics and should have performed well on the one day event of examination popular as JEE. Once a student is on the merit list prepared on the basis of marks, there is a counselling session in which the student is provided with a list of the options in terms of branch and institute and the last year rank cut-offs for the same. The counselling session or the entire selection process for that matter does not lay any stress on the aptitude or interest of the individuals for a particular field or branch. Students have only one criteria to decide their branch and that is the last year cut-off. A little difference that occurs is due to some external input from people who have been or are a part of the IIT system and know how things work. But many of the students who land up in the IIT find themselves uninterested in their branch. They find it difficult to cope up with their academics because at this age they even start working on their actual interests. It hardly occurs that the time and resources invested in nourishing a student with respect to a particular branch yields any results because ultimately very few students from each branch choose to continue in the fields they have been studying for four or five years. Does this practice seem justified? On part of the students, yes, because it is a matter of their future and they should decide what they have to do after passing out. But on the part of the IITs themselves, this practice is more of a failure. The aim of teaching the students is not just to keep them within the boundary of the institute but also to help them achieve their aims and create options for them to do so. The foreign universities generally follow practices like a statement of purpose and other things to decide on the selection of students. It is true that the Indian system of governance is corrupt enough to make use of the fact of such a thing like a statement of purpose to become partial and lose the glory of being the most clean examination of India. But still, there has to be a solution to the problem of aptitude and interest for a particular branch. Either there should be a separate section to achieve this purpose. Say, physics, chemistry and maths are compulsory. But there is an optional smaller section in which you have to attempt, say any three of mechanical, electrical, chemical, computer science, civil and so on. This is just an idea, a suggestion. But the point is that there is a problem that exists and that needs a solution. The recent increase in suicide cases in IITs maybe a reflection of this fact as far as my understanding and experience of the system goes. The situation becomes so difficult for students that they revolt out of frustration and even start failing in courses due to lack of interest. Some people might find it difficult to handle the pressure of failure and this results into students getting into states of depression. They start smoking and even using drug abuse to keep off the depression. And besides, at a broader level, it is becoming more difficult for the good brains who land up at this place only to struggle to achieve what they wish. I believe the responsibility of any institute is to support progress and not obstruct it.