From Times Of India – Oct 8,2011
Bangalore: Tuitions are a way of life. Classes till 3pm and then an hour or two of tuitions is invariably the routine for most children. But as they grow older, the tuitions go and on and on...
And coaching classes to crack the Joint Entrance Examination are also getting longer. What was earlier two years of coaching for the gateway to the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) now extends to four years.
Bangalore, however, is not so well known for an exam that holds the key to the most prestigious engineering institutes. Of the 4.8 lakh students who appeared for the exam last year, around 4,000 were from Bangalore. As per estimates, about 120 students would have entered the hallowed portals.
Coaching centres talk about how no student prepares solely for JEE. For most, JEE is a back-up plan, thanks to the large number of good engineering colleges in the state.
The number of students at coaching centres has gone up considerably. Not surprising, considering the mismatch between demand and supply. The number of students taking the test is 400 times the 10,000 seats in 16 IITs.
There are around five major coaching centres in the city and around 30 smaller players in the state which have few branches. In fact, the government of Karnataka also had tried a hand at giving coaching for rural students, but was so unsuccessful in the venture, it dropped the idea.
Most coaching centres focus on training students with concepts and conditioning them for the exam by giving them the previous years' question papers to practice. The out-of-the-box questions which make their appearance for the first time in the test are tackled only when there's enough time.
"Coaching centres, in general, look at what kind of questions are asked, what are the likely ones and which are the best methods to answer them. There's no space for them to think for themselves. It's the fault with IIT also. They have to create papers that are not predictable," said Gautam Puri, vice-chairman, Career Launcher, a coaching centre.
"The IITs and ministry of human resource development have realized the shortcomings and are working on them. The selection process has to undergo a fundamental change. Earlier, JEE was subjective. There was an opportunity to check the learning and thinking ability of students," said Vallish Herur, director, Base coaching centre.
Coaching centres have many IITians themselves as faculty. For instance, TIME coaching centre has 30 IITians across its branches in the country. With inflation, the fees have also shot up. Coaching centres charge from Rs 40,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh for various programs.
Bangalore: Tuitions are a way of life. Classes till 3pm and then an hour or two of tuitions is invariably the routine for most children. But as they grow older, the tuitions go and on and on...
And coaching classes to crack the Joint Entrance Examination are also getting longer. What was earlier two years of coaching for the gateway to the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) now extends to four years.
Bangalore, however, is not so well known for an exam that holds the key to the most prestigious engineering institutes. Of the 4.8 lakh students who appeared for the exam last year, around 4,000 were from Bangalore. As per estimates, about 120 students would have entered the hallowed portals.
Coaching centres talk about how no student prepares solely for JEE. For most, JEE is a back-up plan, thanks to the large number of good engineering colleges in the state.
The number of students at coaching centres has gone up considerably. Not surprising, considering the mismatch between demand and supply. The number of students taking the test is 400 times the 10,000 seats in 16 IITs.
There are around five major coaching centres in the city and around 30 smaller players in the state which have few branches. In fact, the government of Karnataka also had tried a hand at giving coaching for rural students, but was so unsuccessful in the venture, it dropped the idea.
Most coaching centres focus on training students with concepts and conditioning them for the exam by giving them the previous years' question papers to practice. The out-of-the-box questions which make their appearance for the first time in the test are tackled only when there's enough time.
"Coaching centres, in general, look at what kind of questions are asked, what are the likely ones and which are the best methods to answer them. There's no space for them to think for themselves. It's the fault with IIT also. They have to create papers that are not predictable," said Gautam Puri, vice-chairman, Career Launcher, a coaching centre.
"The IITs and ministry of human resource development have realized the shortcomings and are working on them. The selection process has to undergo a fundamental change. Earlier, JEE was subjective. There was an opportunity to check the learning and thinking ability of students," said Vallish Herur, director, Base coaching centre.
Coaching centres have many IITians themselves as faculty. For instance, TIME coaching centre has 30 IITians across its branches in the country. With inflation, the fees have also shot up. Coaching centres charge from Rs 40,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh for various programs.
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