Former IIT Kanpur Director Says JEE Not The Right Way To Assess Students, Ignores Creativity, Communication Abilities

Former Director of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, Sanjay Govind Dhande believes that the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) is not the right method to gauge students’ talents.

The Indian Express quoted him as saying, “JEE cannot fully assess intelligence of a student. Engineering is not just about PCM (physics, chemistry, mathematics). It demands students to be creative as well. Important aspects including composition, ability to communicate and understand a summary are not checked through this entrance exam. We need to include assessment of creativity and visual intelligence in the JEE.”

In 2018, over nine lakh students have applied for the JEE Main-I that will be conducted in January 2019. The hype is so much that the questions keep getting tougher each year, due to rising competition and lesser seats available. He said that skills such as creativity, communication have to be included too, adding that the country needs an individual assessment system that can cater to every student.

Furthermore, he was quoted as saying, “Open book exams, take-home exams etc are all experiments. There is no size that fits all. The basic goal is to teach students how to learn and think, and this can only be done if the teacher is well-trained.”