Joint Entrance Exam: Is it perfect?

There is a move by the government and several committees to abolish multiple exams, and replace it by a centralized examination.  A proposal is that the admissions to IIT would be based on this exam + some weightage from the board.  There is quite a bit of hue and cry from the supporters as well as opponents of Joint Entrance Examination.  I have not thought deeply about this issue, but it is true that we as a civilization are too exam centric.  Here are my some general thoughts:

1. Since no exam is perfect, it is not a good idea to base admissions solely on one exam.  Most of the reputed institutions (e.g., top US and UK universities) do not do it.  If the number of applicants are less, one exam may be OK. But it is not likely to work when the number of applicants go beyond 5 lacs,  which is the case for the present JEE.

2. JEE has plusses, but the negatives are too serious to ignore.  

(a) At present, there must be more than 500 students having identical aggregate mark in JEE.  Then, how do we rank the students, and worse, assign a branch based on that rank?   We tend to ignore this gross arbitrariness.  To me, this feature is no less arbitrary than board exam marks.

(b) JEE does not test qualitative understanding.  Problems of the sort “charges of 2 units each separated 2 cm apart etc.” are not going to fetch us very creative students.  Laboratory component and connection with nature, which is central to science and engineering, is missing altogether.

(c) Language or communication skills, and social science are integral parts of school education.   JEE and our admission process completely ignores this.

(d) JEE is fostering coaching and leading to neglect of school education.  Consequently, we are getting unidimensional students.  

(e) JEE qualified students think that they have done the greatest thing in life, so they do not need to work any more.  Glorification of JEE by IITs add to this attitude.  As a result, we have bright students, but they do not want to work.

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3. I support admission based on multiple inputs.  Please note that top universities in the work  admit students based on school grades, aptitude test, statement of purpose, publications (could be a lab report or experiment, computer software), interviews, recommendation letters, etc.  Unfortunately, in India we cannot do this  due to our insistence of quantitative measures, and for the fear of RTI or court cases.  However, we must at least agree to the fact that one exam is a very poor test of a students talent and creativity.  Given the constraints in our country, a well thought-out normalized board exam marks (by percentile) may be a good supplement to a nation-wide aptitude and advanced test, as proposed.  

No exam is perfect, and we are already missing out many creative students through the present admission system.  Yet, we have to have some criteria.  So, a balanced data from multiple inputs is a better option.  But the new proposed system is far from it.

Postscript 1: There are however concerns by many that the board exams results could be altered by unfair means.  Various board exams are indeed quite varied.  It is not clear what is the way out.  Hope we converge soon.  Also, one monolith centralized exam is not suitable for colleges with different priorities and backgrounds.


Postscript 2 (11 June): The situation has become rather volatile in the past weeks or so.  This is due to the hurried implementation without proper data.  We hope we will have a better system after the debate.