'Don't charge course fees in advance'

Rahul Chhabra
[ 14 Oct, 2006 0024hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: The State Consumer Commission has restrained educational and professional institutes from charging fees from students for the whole duration of the course in advance and that too in one go. Any violation of this order may invite penalties and imprisonment, the commission said.

The ruling came in connection with a complaint against FIIT-JEE, an institute which conducts coaching for IIT aspirants, which was accused by a student of harassment over refund of advance fees.

Commission president Justice J D Kapoor said: "All the training imparting institutes, educational centres, preparing students for entrance exams or imparting any other kind of training, including the computer training, are hereby directed not to charge the fee for the whole duration of course in advance by way of lump sum payment."

Observing that educational institutes had become commercial shops, Justice Kapoor said: "Such a practice has an abominable ingredient of exploitation... (and it) is adopted only to collect huge amount of money and thereby making themselves unjustly enriched and binding a candidate for the whole duration even if service is later on found to be highly deficient and sub-standard."

Ansari Nagar resident Minathi Rath, whose daughter wanted to opt out of FIIT-JEE classes but was denied a refund, said in her complaint that the quality of teaching was not up to the expected level. Her daughter had taken admission to the two-year course in April 2004 and paid Rs 61,020 as lumpsum fees for two years.

Imposing a fine of Rs 25,000 on the Instituted for a frivolous appeal, the commission said: "The respondent’s daughter had attended the classes for one year and after being dissatisfied with the quality of the training being imparted and lack of personalised attention... she was entitled to refund of the fee for the remaining period (one year)."

Justice Kapoor dismissed the Institute’s appeal against a district forum’s direction, in which it was told to refund Rs 28,000 to her and pay Rs 7,000 as compensation and litigation cost. "The very fact of charging the lump sum fee for the entire duration of two years in advance, and that too for the period for which they are yet to provide the service of, is highly unethical, unscrupulous and unfair trade practice and this is an indirect way to earn large amount of money and to earn undue profit by exploiting the poor students," ruled the commission.

No advance fees, coaching centres told

No-refund rule struck down, violators warned they will be penalised

Express News Service

New Delhi, October 24: Coaching centres and technical training institutes will no longer be able to demand the entire course fees in advance, a ruling by the Delhi Consumer Forum has said.

“All training institutes and educational centres preparing students for entrance examinations... are hereby directed not to charge fees for the whole duration of the course in advance by way of lumpsum payment,” the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission headed by Justice J D Kapoor and member Rumnitta Mittal said.



Holding that a no-refund rule is “unconscionable and voidable”, Justice Kapoor cautioned institutes that violation of the order would attract punitive damages and erring officials may be sent to jail under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act. The commission gave the students liberty to leave the course if they found it was not satisfactory.

“A student may leave in the midst (of the course) if he finds the service deficient, sub-standard and non-yielding, and therefore is entitled for the refund of the balance fees as well as compensation due to deficiency in service,” said Justice Kapoor.

The ruling came on an appeal by south-Delhi-based FIIT-JEE Ltd against an order of a District Consumer Forum on a complaint by an Ansari Nagar resident .

The state forum has of late been receiving similar complaints about practices followed by training institutes in the city.

In his complaint, Minathi Rath said his daughter took admission in a two-year entrance training course with FIIT-JEE in April 2004. She paid Rs 60,020 as an advance. Rath said his daughter was almost forced to leave classes as the institute, contrary to its claim, did not provide personal attention and tried to complete the course in a hurry. But when she tried to leave the course, the institute refused to pay the balance tuition fee on the ground that once paid, it was not refundable.

The complainant sought redressal with the district forum. Finding FIIT-JEE guilty of “unfair trade practices”, it asked the institute to pay Rs 35,000 as compensation. The amount included the balance fee for one year.

FIIT-JEE appealed to the state commission, which not only upheld the forum’s verdict but also enhanced the compensation by Rs 18,000, including punitive damages.

Delhi coaching centres restrained from charging fees in one go

New Delhi, Oct 24:

In what may come as good news to students unsatisfied with their courses yet in a fee-trap, a consumer court has ordered all Delhi-based coaching and educational centres not to charge money in advance for their services and held that the rule "fees once paid is not refundable" is "unconscionable and voidable." "All training imparting institutes, educational centres preparing the students for entrance examinations... Are hereby directed not to charge the fee for the whole duration of the course in advance by way of lumpsum payment," the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission headed by Justice J D Kapoor and Member Rumnitta Mittal said.

Delivering the judgement, Justice Kapoor cautioned all such institutes that any violation of the order shall attract punitive damages and the erring officials may be sent to jail under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act.

Dismissimg the appeal filed by south-Delhi-based M/s FIIT-JEE Ltd against the order of a District Consumer Forum which had held it guilty of "unfair trade practices," the Commission gave the students liberty to leave the course if they found the same not satisfactory.

"Student may leave in the midst if he finds the service deficient and sub-standard and non-yielding and therefore is entitled for the refund of the balance fees as well as compensation due to deficiency in service," said Justice Kapoor upholding the District Forum's verdict.

As per the complaint of one Minathi Rath, a resident of Ansari Nagar, his daughter, an IIT aspirant, took admission in a two-year training course with the FIIT-JEE in April 2004 and had paid Rs 60,020 as lump sum fees in advance.

--- PTI

IIT-JEE Test Pattern to Follow Changes

IIT-JEE Test Pattern to Follow ChangesTHE Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted by the seven IITs has been simplified by including only two papers instead of three. The new pattern will be adopted from the forth coming JEE test which is scheduled to be held on April 8, 2007. The two papers will include questions from all the three disciplines (Physics, Chemistry and Maths) each for three hours. A note released by the Joint Admission Board says that, "JEE 2007 will be a single-stage objective type exami­nation consisting of two papers of three hours dura­tion each to test comprehension and analytical ability of the candidates”.

In the process of evaluation, candidates will be awarded marks separately for Physics, Chemistry and Maths. This would help to shortlist candidates to determine their stream after they are select­ed. IIT officials said the deci­sion to hold two exams instead of three would reduce the stress on the can­didates. According to the new pattern, candidates can attempt IIT-JEE twice from 2006. The provision also says that the candidates who got admission in IT-BHU and ISM Dhanbad through JEE will not be allowed to appear again.

The IITs are also planning to attract foreign candidates by setting up exam centres in Singapore and the Middle East. IITs can admit 10% for­eign students over their pres­ent capacity. Presently, each IIT allows only three to four foreign candidates for admis­sion. The fee that IITs charge from the foreign candidates is $4,000 per year and for stu­dents from SAARC countries is $2,000 per year.

The Joint Admission Board also clarified that the intake capacity of students in IITs across the country
would increase by 54% once the government gives a green signal to implement the proposed 27% reserva­tion for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Why the IIT-JEE pattern was changed

The Rediff Interview/V G Idichandy, Professor, IIT-Madras
October 11, 2005

The IIT-JEE reforms sought to be introduced by the human resources development ministry have sparked a national debate in India.

While the HRD ministry states the new exam pattern is an attempt to curb students' over-dependence on coaching classes and to bring some respectability to the board exams, coaching classes and a section of students question the need for introducing the reforms in the middle of the academic year without prior warning.

This year, about 198,000 students appeared for 4,935 seats at the seven Institutes of Technology; the Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University; and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.

In the wake of these reforms, Professor V G Idichandy of IIT-Madras discusses with Yogesh K Upadhyaya, the reasons for a change in the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination pattern and the eligibility criteria.

Prof V G Idichandy, convener of STF was the chairman of JEE, IIT-Madras in 1999. He is currently a professor in the department of Ocean Engineering at IIT-Madras and the dean of students.

In February 2004, the directors of IITs decided to set up a special task force to recommend reforms for the JEE. Prof Idichandy was the convener of the Special Task Force. Being JEE chairmen at different times, all the STF members were aware of the issues that needed to be sorted out.

They collected a lot of relevant information, had consultations and submitted a report to the government. The present reforms for JEE were deliberated upon at different levels and they represent the collective efforts of all IITs. Excerpts from the interview:

Could you explain the changes proposed in IIT-JEE pattern and eligibility criteria for appearing in the exam?

The decisions approved by the ministry of human resource development are:

JEE will continue to be the sole criterion for ranking the students for admission to IITs, IT-BHU, ISM Dhanbad and other participating institutes.
School results will be factored into the admission process for the IITs. Only those students who secure a first class or equivalent in the plus-2 examinations will be eligible for admission to the IITs.
For students belonging to SC/ST there will be a relaxation of 5 per cent of marks below the level of marks prescribed in the respective examination.
JEE will be a single objective type examination. The question paper can include short write-up on a topic in physics, chemistry or even mathematics followed by objective type questions that are based on the write-up.
A student can write the JEE in the year in which he/she passes the XII standard examination and/or in the following year.
Those who join any of the IITs, IT-BHU, and ISM Dhanbad through JEE-2006 will not be permitted to appear for JEE in the future.
The procedure will be reviewed after JEE-2006. A one-time exception would be allowed for those who passed their qualifying examination in 2005 or earlier.
What prompted the expert panel to change the pattern of exam, from two stages (screening and main) to only one-step exam?

The committee which suggested the screening test ('98 and '99, JEE committees) recommended a review of the examination system after five years. The screening test is a test of the aptitude of the student while the main examination is a test of his/her analytical ability.

We have completed six JEEs after this system was introduced. The IIT system is convinced that an objective type examination can be designed to test both aptitude and analytical ability. Based on this the special task force recommended a comprehensive objective test over a two stage examination.

We must keep in mind that clearing JEE is not an end in itself but it is meant for the very limited purpose of selection of students to an academic programme.

There is a restriction on appearing for more than two times in the exam. There is also a restriction on appearing again, if someone has secured a seat at any of the seven IITs, IT-BHU, and ISM. Why?

The main reason for adopting these two measures is to provide a level playing field for candidates appearing for JEE. Now the JEE stipulates a first class in higher secondary school as the minimum eligibility requirement.

Are we justified in allowing candidates with additional years of preparation to take the exam along with fresh students just out of the school? The candidates appearing two or three years after leaving the school get additional time for JEE-specific preparations, have an altogether different mindset and approach to life and education, when compared to those directly out from the schools.

Two or three years of intensive preparation in specific subjects does not make these candidates any wiser as the training is more to beat the examination rather than for the pleasure of learning.

More or less the same reason is valid for those who have already joined the IITs. In addition, they deny opportunity for others who would have gained entry into one of the IITs.

There were protests in New Delhi and other cities. Why didn't they protest when the main exam-type pattern was changed to two-stage exam (main plus screening) exam in the year 2000?

In the last six years, the IIT system has received much more visibility and recognition. Many students and parents believe that an IIT degree is a passport to success and fame. Those who prepare the students for JEE at astronomical costs, exploit this attitude or misconception to their advantage and would like a predictable, easily recognizable pattern for JEE, and are scared of changes.

I don't believe that the stage-managed protests in some cities were done by students. It does not require much research to identify those behind the protesters. Just like any other unjustified protests, agitation against changes in JEE has been instigated by people with vested interests.

The students and their parents should realise the fact that there are equally good/better opportunities outside the IIT system.

How will a two-tier system help students?

The two-tier JEE tests the aptitude of students for professional education through a screening test and their analytical ability through the main examination.

Many a time the parents decide what their children should study. We have come across students who get admission because of rigorous coaching. Later, they struggle to complete the programme as they have no aptitude for an engineering education. We feel that one way of countering this situation is by allotting branches of study at the end of second or third semester and not at the time of admission as practiced today.

Such a procedure will give the students enough time to study various options available to them and choose the branch most suited to their aptitude. I hope the IITs, in due course, will look at this suggestion seriously.

On the requirement of minimum 60 per cent marks in the XII board exam, critics argue that different boards give marks in different ways. For instance, CBSE is considered lenient in grading, while it is relatively difficult to achieve first class in some boards, such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Also, one of the high school boards in eastern India immediately announced the plan to grade the XII standard exam liberally, so that no one from the state is denied admission to IITs. How will you counter this?

Ideally, normalised scores of the different boards should be used. With about 40 school boards in our country, collecting results, arriving at normalised scores, and above all, convincing the stakeholders of different eligibility marks for different boards are all Herculean tasks -- next to impossible, in fact -- considering the time factor involved.

First class (60 per cent) in a qualifying exam is much more simple, easily understood and accepted.

Though the STF recommended normalised scores, the Standing Committee of the IIT Council (SCIC) which includes the directors of the IITs as members decided on first class in higher secondary as minimum criteria and we saw a lot more wisdom in that approach. Our aim was to give adequate importance to school education in our country. We are extremely happy that all the school boards whole-heartedly welcomed the move.

Don't you think the timing for the announcement of reforms was wrong, as many students have already enrolled in coaching classes, and they are in the middle of an academic year in high school?

IITs cannot introduce reforms in JEE for the convenience of those in the coaching classes. The invariant pattern of the entrance examination of the premier institutions made possible the mushrooming of coaching institutions. They grew because of the demand for quality higher education, seats for which are too few in our country.

Now it has reached a stage where genuine students with raw intelligence and aptitude armed with the knowledge gained in schools find it difficult to compete and gain admission to the premier institutions.

The main target is the student presently in the XII standard or equivalent ready to take an examination, irrespective of the pattern and with all its surprises.

Every year JEE is announced in the month of September. This year was no exception. Eligibility requirements and the type of examination are always explained in the information brochure included along with the application form.

It is reported that over 95 per cent of the students who clear IIT-JEE, have joined coaching classes. This is an unusually high number compared to other national-level exams, such as AIEEE. Why there is a rush for this exam? How will the new reforms help curb the coaching class dependence for an IIT-JEE aspirant?

I have already explained the reasons for the rush for JEE and the consequent enrolment in coaching institutions. We are convinced that the present reforms in JEE will reduce the necessity for additional preparation.

IITs should be allowed to conduct JEE 2006 with the present reforms to prove the point. If the panic reactions witnessed in some cities where coaching centres are concentrated are some indications, the IITs have already won the first round!

Please tell us more about IIT-JEE; when it was introduced and why it has an objective format.

JEE has a long history. It started in the early sixties and evolved through years. There were changes of various sorts over the years. For instance, English was a compulsory paper once upon a time. Later, English, though compulsory, was not in the reckoning for deciding the ranks.

Questions in Hindi and an option for answering in Hindi and regional languages were introduced during eighties. Objective type questions were a part of the JEE for some time. Screening tests also went through metamorphoses before the present pattern was adopted in the year 2000.

JEE is well known for its credibility and the IITs consider JEE very sacred and are very proud of its autonomy.

IITs take extra care and precautions to keep the credibility intact and the faith of the general public and students in the JEE system notwithstanding the incident in 1997 that shook the very foundations of JEE.

But with the strong support of the ministry of HRD, IITs outlived the threat and restored all that was lost within a short time. The whole country recognises the independence of JEE and importance of IITs and that is precisely why anything about IITs receives so much public attention. This public audit makes us more responsible and to perform better.

Don't you agree that school education has faced a setback with students concentrating more on how to crack the entrance tests?

Yes, school education has become a big casualty, as there is no credit for twelve years of schooling for admission to the institutions of higher education, be it state-run or central. (Tamil Nadu is perhaps the only state, where equal importance was given to both school performance and entrance test for admission to professional courses.

Though the TN government announced admissions to professional courses based on school results from 2005, because of the procedural issues, it was not implemented).

Why should anyone take school education seriously, when admissions to higher education is based on one entrance test and the eligibility for admission to national institutions is a just a pass in qualifying examination?

Under such a situation, it is but natural for a student to spent time preparing for entrance examination rather than in the school.

What changes do you foresee once these reforms are implemented?

The measures recommended to reform JEE will pave the way for visible changes in the attitudes of students to the school education. When JEE questions are of the level of XII standard, students and parents will realise the futility of going through the rigours of coaching institutions and neglecting school education.

We also feel the rural students and girls will benefit from these reforms but only the future would tell how far we are justified in making these assumptions. Girls constitute only 8 per cent of the student population in IITs (IIT-Madras taken as reference). But school results show better performers are girls, so this could be the beginning of a new trend.

Coaching factories in Kota badly hit

The results of 2006 confirmed the fears of the coaching factories like Bandal Classes in Kota, which thrive primarily on the students who join them after completing class XII.
Just the cahnge in the examination pattern resulted in a huge jump in the number of students who qualified for IITJEE immediately after XII. It increased from about 28% the previous year to about 44%, which is a jump of over 55%.
Next year, this percentage is likely to go above 60% as only students, who have completed XII in that year and the previous year, will be allowed to appear in IITJEE.
This vindicates the earlier point made in the blog that coaching destinations like Kota and particularly Bansal Classes may soon become a historical phenomenon. Kota is woefully inadequate in its school system. The schools have a reputation of not following the CBSE guidelines and making money by collaborating with the coaching setups. This has resulted in a lot of schools losing their CBSE affiliation.
The students who landed up in Kota were drop outs of 1,2 and 3 years who kept slogging for years.
A lot of small institutes have shut shop as they believe that the gold rush of coaching institutes in Kota has got over. The big ones like Bansal etc. have resorted to the money milking technique of giving admissions to as many people as possible, without giving too much importance to merit.
Bansal Classes once stood for good quality students and small batches. The Bansal of 2006 is the exact opposite of the same. It has become a commercial, money making factory where anybody can take admission in the name of IITJEE.
I guess, it is a good thing to do as the owner of Bansal and other coaching institutes in Kota can see that the end is near.

NEW JEE SYSTEM FACILITATES MORE STUDENTS TO QUALIFY IN THEIR FIRST ATTEMPT

NEW JEE SYSTEM FACILITATES MORE STUDENTS TO QUALIFY IN THEIR FIRST ATTEMPT (Press Release by GOI)
New Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) system facilitates more students to qualify in their first attempt. It further shows that about 2000 students have qualified from towns and villages. According to highlights of JEE 2006, 2,99,288 candidates registered in JEE 2006, which was an increase of about 50% since last year. This increase could be attributed to the reforms made in the conduct of these examinations. Several candidates and their parents who came for counselling have reported that the single stage JEE-2006 system has drastically reduced the stress of the candidates. More significantly, 43.50% of the total candidates qualified in their first attempt, a quantum jump from 28.49% in JEE-2005. The age group of the candidates who qualified in their first attempt is between 16 to 19 years and the proportion of successful candidates belonging to small towns and villages has increased to 30.67%. As fee for female candidates was halved the participation of the female candidates increased from 29,291 in JEE-2005 to 58,997 in JEE-2006.

The information pertaining to JEE-2006 indicates that these reforms have in a large measure achieved their original objective of reducing the stress level of the students by factoring in the school results in the admission process and doing away with the screening test. This has also considerably reduced the dependence of students on coaching classes and made the process of entrance into these premier institutes more equitable, merit based and accessible to students from small towns and rural areas(See Annexure).

It may be recalled that the Human Resource Development Minister had convened a meeting of eminent educationists last year and initiated a dialogue for building a national consensus on issues related to reducing the high stress level among students appearing for Board and Entrance Examinations. As a result of these discussions a Special Task Force (STF) was constituted to evaluate the process of the IIT-JEE. The recommendations of this STF were deliberated upon by the Standing Committee of the IIT Council chaired by Prof. C. N. R. Rao and comprising of all the Directors of IITs. After due deliberations the standing Committee of IIT Council recommended certain reforms in JEE-2006 for the IIT for the year 2006. Some of the reforms introduced were:

· JEE to be a single objective type examination. The screening test was done away with.

· School results are to be factored into admission process for the IIT’s. Only those students who secure a first class or equivalent in the 10+2 examination were to be eligible for admission to the IITs.

· For SC/ST students, there was a relaxation of 5% of marks below the level of marks prescribed in the respective examination.

· A student can write JEE in the year he or she passes the 12th Board examination and/or in the following year.

· Those who join in any of the IITs will not be allowed to sit for the JEE again

· A one time exception was given to the students who appeared in their qualifying examination in the year 2005 or earlier.

…..

ANNEXURE
Statistical Information with regard to JEE-2006:

A few Highlights
· The single stage JEE-2006 system has drastically reduced the stress and mental agony of the candidates as compared to the two-stage system of JEE-2005 as indicated by several candidates and their parents who came for counselling, and Ex.IITians.

· The number of candidates qualified in their first attempt is 2,761, which is 43.50 per cent of the total qualified candidates. This proportion is significantly greater than the corresponding value (28.49 per cent) in JEE-2005. The high proportion of first timers reflects the success of the changed pattern of examination in JEE-2006 in getting more number of students who have been equally good performer in qualifying examination (10+2). Hence, the main purpose of introducing a new examination pattern emphasizing on the importance of school education has been successfully fulfilled. The design of an altogether new type of question paper, examining analytical ability, comprehension skills, and aptitude of the candidates has also a strong bearing on maintaining highest possible standards in JEE-2006.

· The age group of candidates qualified in first attempt is between 16 to 19 years.

· Distribution of qualified candidates among the cities, the towns, and the villages are:

Cities: 4400, Towns: 1328, and Villages: 615

The proportion of successful candidates belonging to towns and villages has also increased to 30.67 per cent as compared to 28.02 per cent in JEE-2005 while the percentage has decreased in case of cities from 71.98 per cent in JEE-2005 to 69.37 per cent in JEE-2006. The proportional increase in the percentage from smaller towns further emphasize the success of the new JEE system and indicate reduced dependence on coaching centers which the candidates from town and village have no access to.

· The application fee for female candidates was half (Rs.300/-) of the fees for male candidates (Rs.600/-). In this respect the new JEE system has also ensured a higher participation of female candidates as evident from the total number of registered female candidates of 58,997 in JEE-2006 as compared to 29,291 in JEE-2005. However, there is only marginal increase in successful female candidates as compared to JEE-2005.

· 2,99,288 candidates registered in JEE-2006 as compared to 1,98,059 in JEE-2005, which is an increase of about 51 per cent over the last year’s number of registered candidates. This increase was probably due to the changed pattern of examination as well as effect of ‘one time exception’ clause incorporated for the candidates who passed the qualifying examination in the year 2005 or before.

Will they start telling the truth?

IITJEE 2005 Piyush Srivastava from Allahabad secured All India Rank 1
Brilliant Tutorials claimed that Piyush was its student, while Piyush gave interviews to media saying that he did not attend any coaching.

IITJEE 2006 Raghu Mahajan from Chandigarh secured All India Rank 1
Brilliant Tutorials again claimed that Raghu was its student, whereas Brilliants does not have its center in Chandigarh. Whether Raghu was a student of the correspondence course or he just filled up some form sent by Brilliants is not known.

IITJEE 2004 Sushant Sachdeva from Pune secured All India Rank 1
FIITJEE claimed that he was their student. Arun Roy of Bombay who sold his brand to Career Launcher claimed that Sushant was his student. The student himself said that he was student of another coaching in Pune.

This practise of confounding the public by not communicating facts is a result of extremely lucrative business of coaching and lack of any regulatory or consumer rights protection mechanism in India.

Since the big brands have the money, they can shout out loud by buying advertising space and even editorial sapce in newspapers like Times of India which charges for writing favorable news. FIITJEE, Brilliants and Career Launcher are big brands. Thay have the financial muscle to shout louder than anybody. In most of the cases stated above, the original coaching center or the student in question clearly stated that the brands were lying but that issue got very little media space. Media publishes what it is paid to write. So most people did not see the real story, they went on to believe what was published in the paper.

The brands have their own reasons to claim such stuff. Arun Roy claimed that I used to teach at Yukti. Hence he is my student. FIITJEE says that he attended our test series and Brilliant says that he took the correspondence course.

This is the story with the top rankers. You can imagine how most of the results that coaching institutes publish are fake. Only the statement of the student in the media has some element of truth.

In any case, this rush of acquiring top rankers allows top ranking atudents to make monay. The top 10 rankers make anything between 3 lakhs to 35 lakhs depending how many coaching endorsements they sign. Varnit Jain, a student of IIT Delhi is pretty straight forward about it. He endorsed over 5 brands. Made a good amount of money. The question is Whether shah Rukh really drives a Santro? He endorses it. So are some of these top rankers selling their ranks to make some money.

We as students and customers must understand that a lot of it is pure deceptive advertising without any substance.

Brilliants has a 30 year history of getting students by giving out cash prizes. They used t give out a lakh in early nineties to the topper. FIITJEE got made into a big brand just on the basis of such advertising. How much of it is really true? Even if it is not, are they wrong in doing it? If they are not wrong, we can at least be prudent enough to not get carried away by such nonsense.

Study hard and find the place that gives you maximum value.

IITJEE 2006 - VMC, Delhi and Bansal, Kota Hit Hard

The results of the IITJEE 2006 reconfirmed the projections made by several people about the impact of the changes on the students of coaching institutes like Vidyamandir Classes, Delhi and Bansal Classes, Kota. Both suffered a substantial drop in the performance.

VMC
In spite of selecting the toppers from North India, Vidyamandir Classes' result dropped from over 67% to 63%. A drop of over 4%. In the first place, 67% was a very bad result considering how they try to pick out only some students from over 12000 who apply for admission.
Whether the institute adds any value or not is suspect. One would be inclined to believe that students of Vidyamandir Classes underperform considering their capabilities.
The 'bhaiyas' at VMC do not need to bother. They pick out the best so that they can claim outstnading percentages in results. This can be gauged from their callous approach in coaching where they spend only one day out of the week in interaction.
Students are not allowed to ask too many questions lest 'bhaiya' should throw them out of the program. The 'bhaiyas' are known to carry the threat of returning the cheque at the slightest provocation from the student.
As a result, students study with a fear that they could get thrown out. If they are not able to understand something or feel pressured in performing, they do not tell 'bhaiya' lest he should throw them out.
This obsessive attachment to results by completely overlooking the student and only focusing on those who are good is a smart way to generate results without much effort. However, numerous students have suffered due to this behavior. We never get to hear from those who did not get thru. Even if you take the opinion of those who got thru, very few hold a high opinion of the 'bhaiyas' in the recent batches.
Maybe, they do not need to worry too much as they have a very big software business in Gurgaon called Nagarro Software.
The brand 'VMC' is taking a very severe beating. This is further dented by the fact that they oopened another batch with a new set of faculty to milk the brand 'VMC'
Everybody knows that VMC means the 3 IITian bothers who used to teach persaonally. Adding new faculty is a sign of decay. a lot of students chose not to take admission as they were offered the new faculty set.
Do not be surprised if the results of 2007 fall below 50%.

Bansal Classes
IITJEE 2006 results of bansal have been more than disappointing. Till now, no oclaim has has come in the newspapers. While a lot of students hav made it but the results are nowhere like last year.
IITJEE 2005 was an exceptional year for Bansal Classes. Driven by the rush of the best Indian students to Bansal Kota and a predicatable paper, 4 out of top 10 ranks of IITians were from Bansal, Kota.
Mr. Bansal is not complaining. After having created a euphoria by selecting 300 students out of 15000 who used to appear for its test till 2004, he has been taking admissions of over 50% students who come to Kota. So the revnue of Bansal Classes has increased by 10 times and profits by 20 times.
When the changes in IITJEE were declared, a lot of coaching institutes made changes in their curriculum to fall in line with what was intended. Students of Bansal Classes were not introdcuced to any change. They kept on the same old methodology of solving long subjective problems.
It is to be expected since Mr. Bansal had over 6000 students to manage. Changes in the course were going to matter but maybe there was too much work to look at this aspect. Or maybe, they were simply clueless about what to do. Over years, Bansal had perfected the art of rote training that did not bother about developing scientific temper. Moreover, Mr. Bansal insisted that students were not supposed to go to school. They were just supposed to study at home all the time. As a result, most of his students were people who had dropped an year or two.
The changes in IITJEE were meant to attack this mindless pursuit of IITJEE in Kota. While IITJEE achieved its objective. The brand Bansal will continue to make money at the cost of students who do not evaluate their options correctly. It may be 3-4 years before Bansal Classes become history.

Is this the end of Coaching Institutes?

The Screening paper (objective type test), which was the first phase of old IITJEE pattern used to have 28 to 30 questions per subject to solve in 60 minutes. That made it 2 minutes per question.All questions had just one answer correct with 3 marks given for the right answer and 1mark deducted for the wrong answer.

The IITJEE paper on April 9, 2006 had 12 questions carrying (3, -1) markseach, 8 questions carrying (5, -1) marks each, 12 questions carrying (5, -2)marks each and 8 questions carrying (6, 0) marks each. (x,y) means x marksgiven for the correct answer and y marks deducted for the wrong answer.IITJEE 2006 was expected to be different.

What the students faced was beyond their wildest imagination. The surprise element managed to achieve its objective. It is expected that only good students who have strongunderstanding of fundamentals will benefit. While the good students who hadstudied well for schools with a good understanding of the subjects enjoyedthe paper, students trained by coaching institutes faced a rude shock. The students of a coaching institute based in Punjabi Bagh in Delhi, which is run by IITians had a particularly tough time. They had been made tobelieve that their entry to IITs is almost sure as almost 70% students ofthat institute get thru to IITs. They had neglected their school workand focused on practising a particular type of long problems which were apart of the old pattern of IITJEE. Now, many of these exceptionally bright students (Coaching programs select the best in the country toreduce their risk) may not get thrru to IITs. They may also have a lessthan average performance in Class XII boards examinations.

Similarly the students who went to kota are feeling cheated. They had been made to practise for a particular kind of examination which never happened. The students in Kota are struck very badly. They spent over 1.5lakhs in kota over the last 2 years. They neglected their school to get thru to IITJEE. Now, they may have lost out on all accounts.The coaching classes of Kota and Delhi had become synonymous withback-door entry to IITJEE. Some believed that there was no need to look atschool studies as coaching program coaching program could put them thru to IITs.

The educationist community was particularly distressed. Principals and teachers saw the results and attendance of the best of their students drop against the on slaught of caoching. Finally, after muchhue and cry, the changes were made with the objective of reducing the clout of coaching on competitions and aligning the IITJEE with school studies.The attack was particularly directed towards kota which has become a hub forcoaching.The intake of good students is expected to drop. Kota, is assumed to befinished.

Kota has a history of mercurial rise and falls. It witnessedthe shutting down of JK Synthetics and then the mushrooming of Coaching. Now, the coaching game is all but over. Students from outside kota will not go to kota anymore. Similarly, the biggest loser in Delhi is expected to be the coaching centers of Punjabi Bagh and Kalu Sarai. The hype around coaching had attractedpeople from South India to open centers in Delhi. These institutes areshouting about faculty members whose knowledge about IITJEE has become obsolete.

Is it the end for Coaching? Experts believe that the hype of coaching will reduce drastically. This can be guaged from the fact that a lot of teachers in Kota have startedlooking for alternate careers. Since the competition is so tough (less than2% get thru), expert coaching would be required. However, it would have to be aligned to school work. It will be closer to small group tutoring. Someof the big names will get a tremendous hit on their business. The opportunity seen by MBA coaching institutes in IITJEE coaching would disappear. Some specialized Tutoring cum Coaching setups like QuestTutorials will benefit tremendously. Quest is run by IITians who saw theneed to align school studies to coaching 3 years back. According to Praveen Tyagi, Director Quest, "we are in luck as our program has become veryrelevant suddenly for the new ITTJEE pattern". The established coaching institutes will also make the required changes but such changes take over anyear to get implemented which will be too much time wasted for students.

Analysis of Coaching Institutes in wake of "New IITJEE" pattern

Q: Are coaching institutes valid anymore?

The coaching institutes were built on the necessity that a separate kind of material for the practice of IITJEE is required along with the studies of Class XI & XII.

It made the prestigious IITs open to all students without the need of specialized coaching centers like KOTA etc. Earlier, the subjective pattern of the mains examination required a student to develop problem solving techniques which were way above the capability developed during the study at school. While the course material was known to everybody, students still needed the support of specialized coaching institutes to learn the variety of problems that could come and master the techniques needed to solve them. Effectively the preparation technique for preparation for IITJEE became completely different ballgame compared to CBSE examinations.

The new changes have brought about a much needed change which will allow students to prepare along with Class XI & XII without putting too much extra time in doing a different kind of material which was required earlier.

Q: How does this change affect the preparation of students who have been preparing for IITJEE 2006 and IITJEE 2007

The changes are tremendous from the students' point of view. Whoever was preparing in a holistic manner will benefit. Those students who were just preparing with some coaching institutes on long problem solving techniques based on the older pattern without laying emphasis on fundamentals or without developing scientific temper will have a tremendous disadvantage. Super-specialized IITJEE coaching center students will not have any advantage over other students. They may suffer from the disadvantage of having prepared in an irrelevant manner.

Q: What impact is it likely to have on the various coaching institutes?

The following changes are expected as a result of this new development,

The course material of well known institutes (Vidyamandir Classes, FIITJEE, Bansal Classes, Kota, Brilliant Tutorials, Narayana etc.), which was geared up to develop students for the old format will not be relevant anymore. These programs emphasized a lot on the long problem solving techniques developed for the IInd stage examinations (Mains). There focus on subjective problem was so high that some of their very good students did not clear the screening test only as they were never prepared for the intricacies of the objective type paper.

The reason is simple. Most of the faculty members and teachers of these institutes have been following the old format of long problem solving. They do not have skills in developing a student in objective type problem solving, which is based on fundamentals of Class XI-XII. Some propagate the belief that it is possible to solve objective type if you know subjective problems more out of an absence of choice. While it helps do solve problems in a subjective manner for better understanding, objective type tests require a completely different psychological orientation and set of skills.

Most of these coachings do not look at the fundamental books like NCERT. The emphasis has been on learning techniques instead of developing scientific reasoning and scientific temperament.

On an individual basis, the critique of coaching institutes and course material is as follows:

Useless Course material (needs to be thrown away immediately)*

Vidyamandir Classes, Delhi (Correcpondence course material)

Bansal Classes, Kota (DPP and other material)

FIITJEE, Delhi (RSM)

Quest Tutorials, Delhi (Dronacharya Power Course - based on Agrawal Classes)

Brilliant Tutorials, Chennai (Elite, YG File)

Resonance Kota (Course material)

Apex Academy, Bombay (based on Agrawal Classes)

Pie Classes. Delhi (based on FIITJEE)

* keep the objective type questions

All IITJEE specific guides like M L Khanna (M), O P Agrawal (C) or DC Pandey (P) have become redundant. Focus of qualitative text books like NCERT, Resnick & Halliday (P), Morrison & Boyd (C), S L Loney (M), Hall & Knight (M) etc.
Those with a better ability to apply knowledge into problem solving will gain.

Biggest Losers
Institutes in Kota will be the hardest hit. Some established players in Delhi which had been falling behind may see this change as the beginneing of their end.

• Vidyamandir Classes, Delhi

It is owned by brothers all of whom are understood to be IITians of previous years.
The coaching classes are conducted once a week per batch.
The focus of the teachers is primarily on motivation and confidence building.
Extraordinary emphasis on the course material which has not been updated in its pattern. The course focuses on long, difficult problem solving techniques, which were very relevant for IITJEE till 4 years back. The recent trend has seen a reduction of such problems. Hence the results of the students of Vidyamandir have been steadily declining over the past few years.

There has been no attempt to revamp their program structure or change the course content, which was developed many years back.

The owners are engaged in a software firm which is doing good business in Gurgaon. The firm is called Nagarro Software (www.nagarro.com). The website does not indicate that the promoters of the firm are same as that of Vidyamandir Classes. This appears to have been deliberately done so that no harm happens to the coaching business. Their approach has led to a drop in the results of their students over the last few years.

• Bansal Classes, Kota

The biggest loser with the new change. Their story is similar to Vidyamandir Classes. The point to be noted is that Bansal Classes has resorted to the commercial milking of the brand name by taking admissions of over 8000 students. While there is nothing wrong in teaching 8000 students the question remains over their capability to handle such a large chunk of students. Till last year Bansal Classes had only 1500 students. The year before that saw Bansal Classes training only 600 students. To suddenly ramp up to 8000 students has caused a lot of trouble in terms of managing faculty and quality of delivery.
The change is the format is likely to cause a huge impact as it is not geared up to deal with objective type problem solving. The huge dependence on teachers who teach in the old format will cause a lot of trouble in transition. The technique was developed for students who prepared after completing their Class XII. The new change will make the Kota system redundant for IITJEE.

• Resonance Kota

Same as Bansal Classes. They were a second option to Bansal Classes but still very dependent on star faculty who have become redundant. The Kota system is likely to be hardest hit.

• Brilliant Tutorials, Chennai

This institute is very strong in systems as well as correspondence programs. Their classroom program in Delhi is relatively new and dependent on some faculty members.

The changes in the course happen from Chennai, which may not happen before the end of this session. The students of the classroom program are likely to suffer as it will take time to implement the new system from Chennai.

• Narayana IITJEE Academy, Nellore

A guerilla marketing specialist in the world of IITJEE coaching. Narayana specializes in luring good faculty with extra money and capturing the market. They do not have any systems at all. The students in Delhi are not happy at all. A similar story has been observed in Kota. The new system is likely to kill the business of Narayana. Most students are likely to ask for refund or drop out of the program as the hired faculty does not know what to do with the new format.

• FIITJEE, Delhi

Very strong on systems. Independent of faculty. Smart marketing. Powerful R&D cell.

FIITJEE is the only one of the large institutes which may be able to handle this change. The only trouble is that recently it has seen a big churn in its faculty members. The number of admissions over the last 2 years have fallen down. The setup is centrally controlled by the promoter D K Goel. He is focusing on starting schools. The absence of smart people in the organization may cause them to respond slower than needed.

New Coaching Destinations

The institutes, which have strong systems, independent of the faculty members are likely to come out quickly with programs and courses that are aligned to the new format of IITJEE. All coaching centers with research cell outside Delhi will take time to implement the changes. Hence, there is very little likelihood of any relevant changes getting implemented at coaching centers other than the following. a lot of new institutes will emerge.

• Quest Tutorials, Delhi

New outfits like Quest Tutorials may emerge as they will be able to respond to the new pattern really fast. Moreover, they will face less trouble in changing the faculty base if needed. Deserves mention due to a program (already launched) , which is closest to the new format. They approach IITJEE through Class XI-XII syllabus. It has all IITians as faculty members. Very strong system oriented approach. I know the setup personally. Hence the recommendation. Kindly observe that I may be biased.

• Pie Classes, Delhi

Strong presence in AIEEE market. Pie practically exited the IITJEE business after its centers saw a flight of teachers. It has batches both for IITJEE and AIEEE. Independent of star faculty, it has the capacity to stage a turnaround.

• Arun Roy Classes, Bombay

Acquired by Career Launcher, who are among the market leaders in CAT coaching. Career Launcher is an outfit started by IIM graduates. New to IITJEE domain. Strong on the systems. Lack creativity but may be able to stage a good presence in the years to come.

IITJEE PATTERN CHANGE - An Analysis

The problem solving skills of IITJEE were meant to test the analytical abilities of the student. The objective was to come up with a completely new type of problem which the student would not have seen earlier. This would eliminate all those students who succeed in the system by remembering and reproducing. The emphasis was on application over knowledge.

However, over the years, the same novelty of IITJEE got institutionalized into a predictable pattern of difficult problems from a very large set of likely problem types.
Now, the student could completely do away with the fundamental aspects of science and get through IITJEE if he knew the way of solving problems. Hence a variety of coaching institutes mushroomed which just de-emphasised the need for study of Class XI - XII. The coaching institutes developed a methodology where they focused on getting the student to acquire each and every technique of problem solving by hard work and repetition.

While at one end this caused burn out among students to such an extent that they lost interest in studies after landing up in IITs. This system also defeated the very same purpose with which it was created.

Also, the craze for the IITs has been increasing every year making some people put everything at stake for the same. A gambler like mentality has been observed among students who perceive IITs to be the door to success. Hence, there were quite few students who kept attempting for IITs for 3-4 years.

In order to curb this abuse of IIT craze, the government has taken the measures, announced recently. These actions will not eliminate the need for coaching. This will align the IITs to school studies. Hence, the students will not look at IITs at the cost of school studies.