IIT faculties upset over common test

NEW DELHI — Upset over the common entrance test (CET) to Indian Institutes of Technology proposed by the Human Resource Development Ministry, the national body of IIT faculty yesterday questioned why the government was in such a hurry to start the new format.

"They have not done their homework, they are still not able to get the marks from all boards and normalise it. If they cannot do it now, how will they do it next year," IIT Faculty Federation President Sanjeev Sanghi said.

"It does not reduce multiplicity of the exams, it does not do away with coaching," he said.

"We want to ask what is the hurry with 2013?"

Sanghi, who heads the national body of IIT teachers which is leading the battle against the new format along with IIT alumni associations, said representatives from all Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are attempting to meet the prime minister and take up the issue with him.

On a day when professors from IIT Kanpur wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sanghi said the senate of all IITs were against the new format.

"All of us will meet prime minister," he said.

The developments come after IIT Kanpur announced that it will hold a separate entrance test for admissions from 2013, rebelling against the joint entrance test. Senates of other IITs, prominently IITs at Delhi, Kharagpur and Bombay have also expressed their protest against the new format.

However, Director of IIT Delhi R K Shevgaonkar, IIT Bombay Director Devang Khakhar, along with IITKharagpur's Damodar Acharya, and IIT Guwahati director Gautam Barua were reported to be supporting the new format.

"We stand by our decision to go through the CET route from next year onwards and there is no deviation from the same," Shevgaonkar was quoted in a report.

According to sources, the minutes of meeting of the senate of IIT Kharagpur showed the senate was against the new format. Similar was the case with IIT Guwahati.

the