Is JEE Going Away

In the last couple of days, there have been numerous articles in media (Hindustan Times, Business Standard, Indian Express) that IIT JEE and AIEEE will merge into one exam in 2013, that the weight of this exam will not be 100 percent, but 50 or 60 percent, with remaining weight being given to 12th class marks. That there is some formula that has been created for normalizing 12th class marks across all boards.

Media tells us that MHRD officials are very secretive and tightlipped about the details. It also tells us that most IIT Directors are willing to say only little and that too on the condition of anonymity. Apparently there is a meeting of IIT Council on 18th February, where the detailed proposal will be presented and approved, and it will be implemented with admission cycle of 2013 (since admission process for 2012 is already on).

I hope the media is wrong, and all this is just rumor.

While I have been arguing in this blog that there are many things wrong with JEE, and that IITs need to do something about the problem of students not paying attention to the school education, doing changes in such a secretive fashion is likely to create more problems and not solve existing problems. Solutions must be available in public. People should be able to debate those changes and give their feedback. IIT Council, in its wisdom, may ignore that feedback, and decide what it collectively believes is best for IITs (and the society). But not giving anyone a chance to opine is simply not cricket.

Ministry is keen to reduce the number of entrance exams. Is this a real problem. Putting everything in one basket causes stress. A big reason for reforms was to reduce stress. If ministry really wants to reduce stress, it should see to it that entrance exams (including JEE and AIEEE) can be given multiple times till a candidate is satisfied with his/her performance. So more exams and not less are needed to help the student.

Why so much hurry. That is easy to understand. 2014 is the year of general elections. Politicians do not want to do anything which could go wrong and become unpopular just around the election time. And it is not clear how to make moves now so that the Minister after 2014 elections is unable to stop the change. So you can't assume that it will necessarily happen in 2015. So the only option is 2013, even if appears to be somewhat unfair to some students.

If IITs were to considerably change their admission process and allow a 40-50 percent weight to the 12th class marks in 2013, would it not be unfair to someone who will give the 12th class exams in 2012. These students will claim that they spent much more time on the JEE test than the 12th class exams, since the marks in 12th class were not being counted towards admission, but now suddenly they are being told that their 12th class marks will indeed be considered for the admission purpose.

The boards are currently under legal obligation (because of a Supreme Court decision) to announce the 12th class result by 30th June. But that is too late for IIT admission. Will it be possible to ensure that results of every single board is announced by say, 10th June.

The specific questions that I am raising are not important. The important point is that if the process had been transparent, then lots of people would have had the opportunity to raise such questions, and if education sector will not have transparency then where else to expect transparency. I have no doubt in the wisdom of 40-50 wise persons who constitute IIT Council, but I do have doubts whether their combined wisdom is more than the combined wisdom of all other stake holders.

At the end, I am really hoping that media is just indulging in speculation and there is really no such secretive proposal that will be discussed and approved with just an hour of discussion.

7th Annual Convention of Indian Railway Fan Club

Last weekend, I was visiting Kolkata. I went there to attend the 7th Annual Convention of Indian Railway Fan Club.

It is a fun event, where you go for a sanity check. The whole year, you keep hearing from your family and friends, how crazy you are. Sometimes you actually start thinking whether you should meet a counselor. But then the convention time comes and you meet other members of your community. It is a comforting feeling to know that you are not alone in this universe. After all, the beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.

It is a difficult hobby to pursue, particularly if there is no one in your family working for Railways. As a kid, you are constantly told that memorizing Tables for numbers from 1 to 20 is more important than memorizing Railway Time Tables. Modern history is all about what politicians did and no exam is ever going to ask about the role that Railways played in shaping that history. When it comes to knowing the Indian cities, it is alright to just remember that Kolkata is the capital city of West Bengal. There are no bonus points for knowing that Kanpur lies on the path from Delhi to Kolkata. (What is interesting is that parents don't have the same concerns for hobbies like philately. In fact, if a child shows an inclination towards philately, the parents will tell the child how philately could help him learn history and geography better.)

The convention had some truly memorable presentations. The clips from Satyajit Ray's movies containing train related scenes were fantastic. The etymology of train names taught us not just why the trains have been given particular names, but we learned history, geography, languages, and many more things. The interview with a loco pilot gave us interesting insights into a job that many kids love, but they are brainwashed by the time they become adults. Interesting history about why there is no rail link between Indian subcontinent and Mayanmar, even though at multiple places the distance between the closest rail heads in the two countries is not too large. And how this lack of rail link allowed Japanese to occupy what was then known as Burma. What was the context for deciding the Unigauge project in 1993, or the context in which the Railway Strike of 1974 happened. There was a lot of interesting stuff to learn.

The worst part of the convention is the Quiz. It exposes your ignorance so blatantly. It is done in two stages. In first stage, everyone answers the 20 questions, and the top 8 scorers get to participate in the real quiz in the second stage. I have never reached the second stage, but I have not lost hope. I started with 0 marks in the 1st convention, have been improving my score every year, and this time, I had correctly answered 6 questions. At this rate, I should be in the second round in the 17th convention or so. This time, some of us, who have always been in the bottom few, tried to rig the quiz. We argued that people who were the finalists last year should not be allowed to participate - give chance to new faces to win the quiz. But soon we realized that this won't help us, and we started arguing that finalists of all 6 previous conventions should be disqualified. It probably won't have helped us either, but in any case, the organizers did not believe in equal rights for all. So, the effort failed, and I will have to wait for 10 more years to get to the second round (at the current rate of improvement).

I was incredibly lucky to find a room to stay at Howrah Station. The window overlooked the platforms, and I could see the train movement early morning and late night, that is, before and after the convention. The announcements kept me fully informed about all the train arrivals and departures. To drink a cup of coffee, one just came down to the platform, any time of the day or night.

We did a quick count of people who have attended ALL seven conventions so far, and we (myself included) are ten in numbers. By the way, I am one of the founding members of this fan club (in 1989) and we also organized one of the conventions at IIT Kanpur (in 2008). I am already looking forward to the next convention. The place will be decided in the next couple of months through voting by more than 5000 members who participate in the forums of the club.

Teaching 500+ Students - Part 5 (Sleeping during the lectures)

When I was a student, I used to miss any class if I felt sleepy. It just seemed wrong to sit in the class and not pay attention. Things have changed with age, and perhaps with time. Now, I can peacefully sleep during seminars without feeling too guilty. And I have no problems with my students sleeping in my lecture, as long as they don't get upset with my lecture disturbing their sleep, and they don't snore and disturb others. Peaceful coexistence, as they say.

About a month ago, in one of my lectures, I noticed that a student was sleeping in the last row of L-7. (For the benefit of readers not familiar with IITK lingo, L-7 is lecture hall number 7, which is the largest lecture hall on campus with a capacity of more than 500.) When I say sleeping, I don't mean sitting with eyes closed and not paying attention. He was as flat as you can be on a chair with legs resting on the next seat. He had a handkerchief on his face so that the lights don't bother him. And, I am sure, though I did not check, he had ear plugs to make sure that my lecture does not disturb him. His body did not seem to be moving at all.

I became acutely aware of what W H Auden (an American Poet) had said about half a century ago, "A Professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep," and I tried to be soft, and I tried to ignore him. Sometimes there will be two students sleeping. I was curious, as to who they were, were they registered in my course, were they sleeping through the previous lecture as well, and why can't they sleep in their hostel rooms.

The funny thing happened two days ago. I decided to take a surprise quiz in the lecture. A kind soul went to the last row to wake up the sleeping student, gave him the paper. The student took a few seconds to look at the question, returned the paper, and went back to sleep. How important can a few marks be when you are day dreaming about your career, or your favourite heroine, for that matter.

Today was the last lecture of my course, and my last chance to find out. So I asked some students in the course if they knew who they were. Yes, of course, they were registered students in my course, and very hard working ones at that. They worked whole night, every night. Doing what? I don't know but I can only guess that playing computer games and watching movies on a small screen is a lot of hard work. And human body can only take so much. So one has to sleep some times. No user manual of life has said that one can only sleep in the night. And they were born in a free country, where they can enjoy a whole lot of freedoms, including freedom to sleep at will.

But students told me that the Warden of one hostel whose resident this student was, considered himself above the Indian constitution. He got the Hall Executive Committee to approve a rule which stated that students cannot be in their rooms when their classes are on. No respect for individual freedom. I guess this warden thinks that these students have come to IIT for studying. He himself should wake up and smell some coffee.

So sleeping in the room during the late morning hours entails a cost (fine) of Rs. 50. Sleeping in the lecture hall is free. And in the last row, disturbance is arguably less than what it would be in the wing. In fact, the C syntax that I was teaching must be acting as a lullaby for him. (Though I wonder whether the Physics lecture before my lecture was also sleep inducing? They apparently had slept through that too.) To add to their comfort, the lecture halls are air-conditioned. What more can one ask for. It is such an attractive proposition that I am sure the student would have gladly paid Rs. 50, if we insisted on that to let him sleep during the lecture. It is definitely better sleeping in a lecture hall than in the hostel.

But in my opinion, some things in the world must be be tax-free. Free Sleep is one of those things I feel strongly about. I am sure when the constitution was being drafted, the members were asleep. That is why they gave us free speech, when they really wanted to give us free sleep.

Oh! The joys of teaching a 500+ students' class.

Added on 18th November: Here are the links to previous posts on my experiences in teaching 500+ students:

Teaching 500+ Students - Part 4 (Extreme performances) 
Teaching 500+ Students - Part 3 (Excuses for Copying)
Teaching 500+ Students - Part 2 (Conducting Labs)
Teaching 500+ Students - Part 1 (Language Issues)