Poor show by state students in IIT-JEE exam worrying

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

JAMMU, May 20

Unlike various medical and engineering examinations at national level that have been cracked by a number of students from the state every year, the success rate of state aspirants is poor when it comes to cracking the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) tests, owing to lack of core understanding at concept level and awareness.

As per official figures, over 12 lakh students across the country test their luck every year by taking IIT-JEE but less than 1 per cent are able to make it to the IIT campus gates.

Further, 1.8 per cent settle down for other reputed colleges, such as National Institute of Technologies (NITs) and almost 97.2 per cent face disappointment. They either settle for mediocre colleges or plan to reappear (if eligible).

The Tribune talked to various stakeholders, including teachers from coaching institutes and faculty from engineering institutes, to find out the exact causes behind state’s poor success rate in clearing IIT-JEE exams.

“No doubt, cracking IIT-JEE is not a cake walk and for students hailing from border state like J&K, it is even tougher. For the past few years, there has been a slight increase in the number of aspirants preparing for IIT-JEE exams but still, there is not much awareness,” Chaman Lal, owner of CLCC Coaching Institute in Jammu, said.

“Every year, the institute registers 10-20 students for coaching but very few manage to prepare seriously, because the way the syllabus is organised, taught and tested in the schools is not of much help to a majority of aspirants as far as JEE preparation is concerned,” he maintained.

“Even in IIT-Jammu at Jagti, where student enrollment is over 360, less than five students from Jammu have been enrolled, which is enough to indicate how poor is the awareness and preparation level here,” Chamam Lal said.

“I have noticed that most of the students start off with their preparation for IIT-JEE with a lot of enthusiasm, making study schedules and time tables to plan their preparation well. But after some time, they become complacent towards their daily planned study schedule,” Parveen Sharma of RS College of Competitions said.

“There is indeed lack of awareness among the aspirants regarding IITs, which is not an encouraging sign. Now, the students of the state have the added advantage to having the IIT here. What they require is able coaching under experts to crack IIT-JEE,” an IIT- Jammu faculty said.

“One of the main reasons behind poor success rate of students in cracking the exam is lack of expert faculty in the institutes offering coaching. Of course, the students too lack the concept but absence of trained faculty is the biggest stumbling block,” Randhir Singh, faculty from Sant Roacha Singh College, opined.