Wednesday, June 2
Hyderabad, May 31: It is a question of raw talent vs. well-tutored preparedness. With a number of students from the state from a handful of educational institutions making it to the top-10 in national-level competitive exams like IIT-JEE and AIEEE, the issue of “coaching-centric education” has came to the fore again.
Perhaps to make this point, IIT-Madras director Prof M. S. Ananth had recently said: “I am looking for students with raw intelligence and not those with a mind prepared by coaching class tutors. The coaching classes only help students in mastering question papers or in pattern recognition skills. By attending IIT coaching classes, students are learning a wrong lesson that the ends justify the means.”
There is already a debate raging at IITs on whether the JEE is admitting B.Tech students with the best coaching rather than the best students. The view is that the IITs have been only able to attract students who have been “conditioned for the JEE” by high-profile coaching centres in Kota and Hyderabad and those who can afford them could easily succeed.
For instance, of the 4.5 lakh IIT-JEE applicants from the entire country this year, seven students from Andhra Pradesh have figured in the top-10 list. Another classic example is the fact that of the total 11 lakh applicants for AIEEE-2010, eight AP candidates were in the top-10 list. These ranks were not secured by students in the reservation categories but in the open category.
Most importantly, these rankers have not come from different institutes but hail from only two institutes. Between them these two institutes have produced 90 per cent of the top-10 ranks in open category in both IIT-JEE and AIEEE. Surprisingly, many of these toppers had no idea what “general elections” or “delimitation of election constituencies” meant.
Academicians blame the coaching-centric exam system for this lack of awareness among students. They say that such ranks were possible due to the coaching-centric training being implemented by educational institutions in the state.
To further prove the point, it is expected that nearly 25 per cent of the total seats in both IIT-JEE and AIEEE will be occupied by students from AP.
“Earlier it was Kota and now it’s Hyderabad. They select students with average intelligence in maths and science subjects at Class VII and start intensive training for five years — till Class XII — with the sole aim of cracking the IIT-JEE and AIEEE. Then ranks will definitely follow,” said Mr K. Shyamsunder Rao, a senior teacher at a prominent corporate college.
Narayana Group of Institutions bagged six of the top-10 ranks in IIT-JEE and eight of the top-10 ranks in AIEEE this year. When asked, Dr P. Narayana, chairman of Narayana Group said, “We could achieve the feat this year as we were training these students right from Class VII. We set up ‘Olympiad Schools’ five years ago just for training students for IIT-JEE and AIEEE. The first batch completed Class XII this year and the results are here to be seen.”
He, however, admitted that though they had secured good ranks in earlier years, this year’s feat was unmatchable. “Earlier, we had only junior colleges wherein we gave admissions to students after they completed Class X from different schools. The two years time in Intermediate was not sufficient to train them for IIT-JEE and AIEEE in a complete manner. Now, with the launch of our own schools from Class VII, we can train students comprehensively for five years till Class XII. The concept proved to be a success as we could achieve top-10 ranks with our very first batch of students,” Dr Narayana said.
The other institute which bagged top ranks in both the exams is the Sri Chaitanya Group. It also started its own “techno schools” to train students from Class VII.
“What I had dreamt of five years ago has been realised now. Many of our students could secure top-10 ranks in IIT-JEE and AIEEE with intensive training from Class VII,” said Dr B. S. Rao, chairman of Sri Chaitanya Group.
These colleges expect many more top-10 ranks in future as they have made considerable changes in their training programme right from Class VII.