May 18, 2016
Govt. partnering with IITs to conform papers to 12th class students.
By Sreekanth A. NairMay 18, 2016
Kota in Rajasthan is known as the coaching capital of India with thousands of students reaching the city each year for help to crack entrance examinations for premier higher educational institutions.
But the city has been in the news for long for rising number of student suicides. Two students had committed suicide in May following their poor performance in the National Eligibility and Entrance Examination (NEET) exam.
Finally, the central government has come up with a solution that may help students in their studies and put an end to student suicides.
According to a report in Livemint, Union Human Resources Development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani said that the government and Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) are joining hands to release the solved question papers of Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) held in the last 50 years.
The students can download the question papers from a website or use a mobile app. The ministry has also decided to prepare questions of JEE considering the Class XII syllabus. One of the toughest examinations in the country, JEE, is the gateway to premier engineering education institutions like IITs.
“For the first time, the government, in conjunction with the IIT Council, will ensure that the question papers (of JEE) conform to Standard XII syllabus,” Irani was quoted as saying by Livemint. “If degree-level questions are asked, we cannot expect a school student to answer,” she added.
IITs will also help students by providing audio and video lectures. To overcome the language barrier, question papers will be released in 13 Indian languages.
“The aim of coaching centers and the government is one—to benefit students. Opening up the JEE papers is a good move and shall benefit students. But the question is why students are going for coaching. The answer is, the formal education system has gaps which have not been plugged for decades,” Satya Narayanan R., executive chairman of CL Educate told Livemint.
Six students have committed suicide in Kota this year alone. In April, a 17-year-old student committed suicide in Kota after realizing that her score in the JEE was more than enough for her to qualify to study as an engineer, which depressed her, as she wanted to study something else.
