Do We Need Regional Engineering Entrance Examinations ???

While everyone has been discussing whether or not we need the ISEET (chances are that ISEET will be called JEE – Joint Entrance Examination), let us turn the issue around and ask ourselves whether or not we need the current regional engineering entrance examinations. The answer to this question will help us in approaching the discussion from a different point of view and might hopefully guide us to decide for the better.

Let us first think from the point of view of Regional Colleges. Three important questions to ask are - What do regional engineering entrance examinations test in candidates? What other purposes do these regional examinations serve? Will the same purposes be served with the common ISEET?

All the regional engineering entrance examinations are primarily based on Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. Though the syllabus of these three courses for each regional engineering entrance examination is a little different from the other, all these examinations test advance skills with basic knowledge of students in the three courses. These examinations also test the speed as well as quick judgment (which questions to leave and which ones to attempt along with time management while writing the examination) of the applicants. Now, if these regional examinations are replaced by a common test like ISEET that tests the same qualities, it should not make much of a difference.This makes us infer that with the advent of ISEET, we can safely bid adieu to regional examinations without affecting the quality of selection criteria and students entering the engineering colleges.

One other purpose that regional examinations purportedly serve for the respective regional college is maintaining a distinguished brand of the college and ensuring control of the college over all its affairs including entrance examinations. Having the college's own entrance examination conveys to the masses that the college is capable enough of conducting its own entrance examination. But to me, the attributes that would differentiate the brand of any regional college more and would prove its capabilities would be the level of research carried out and papers published, quality of Professors and quality of admitted students.The common ISEET will relieve the regional colleges of the time and energy - consuming headache of conducting examinations, thus ensuring that these regional colleges focus more on the core areas that make an institution stand out from the rest.Inevitable costs of conducting examinations could then be avoided and channelized into other improvement areas for the college. This point again tilts the scale against the need of regional examinations.

Regional colleges usually have reservations as high as 80% for applicants of the respective state and the balance is for Rest of India. Apart from these percentages, there are Management Quota Seats that the colleges fill up with candidates who give huge sums of money as donations. Without regional examinations (i. e. with ISEET) too, the regional colleges could still have the same reservation percentages and be totally fine. The only change that will happen(and that too in the positive sense) in this case would be the increase in diversity of students from Rest of India coming to regional colleges. This point again leads us to question the need of regional examinations.

Students are the future of India. No article or discussion can be complete without thinking from their point of view.

The low percentage of seats allotted for Rest of India often acts as a deterrent for many talented students who decide against taking the regional college examinations of some states that have reputed colleges.Students have to spend a lot of money traveling to the respective states to take examinations and compete for as low as 20% of seats. For example, VJTI Mumbai is a great college but many aspirants from North India do not even fill up its entrance examination form due to this very reason. If there are no regional examinations, there will be ISEET and when there will be ISEET, the deterrence will be somewhat diluted because the students will not have to do anything extra to fight for the 20% seats. They would just have to fill up the application forms. Quite often, the date of regional examination of one state is in close vicinity of the examination date of some other state, thus limiting the students' options with respect to colleges.Without separate regional examinations, the students will have broader options both in terms of colleges and in terms of specializations (Computer Science, Electronics, Mechanical, etc.). They will also be able to take admission in the course of their interest.

Needless to mention, students will save a lot financially by not traveling to each state to take its regional examination. The students and their parents will of course have to shell out money to travel for the Counseling sessions at different regional colleges after the examination results but they would have to incur these costs even with regional examinations in place.

Added to all of the above, the students will not have to bother to prepare separately for each regional examination, which again will relieve them.

We can therefore conclude that a common exam like ISEET will make the regional engineering entrance examinations redundant. In fact, without regional examinations,regional colleges, students and their parents would actually be better off.

As I finish this article, there are two major concerns rocking my mind. One, if only ISEET could be conducted multiple times a year(like SAT, GRE, GMAT, etc.),it would have been a win-win decision (because if a student falls ill or is not able to take the ISEET on the single ISEET date due to some unavoidable circumstances, her/his life will be ruined). Two, with weightage also given to Class XII Board Examination marks, the pressure on students will increase because now they will have to worry about their Board Examinations as well as ISEET (Earlier, students could score 65 – 70% in Class XII Board Examinations and still end up in a good college by scoring well in the entrance examinations).

With fingers crossed, I just hope my article reaches the Government and they take corrective actions to help the future of India.

The Transformation - From Employee to Employer...

I graduated from ISB with one short-term goal in mind. I planned to stay with OW for a year and then start my own company, a publishing house [Will talk about my long-term goal when time is right for it]. But entrepreneurship is all about grabbing opportunities at the right time and I saw one in October 2009 and clung to it. It did not take me long to put in my papers and go ahead with what I wanted to do in life.

I was inundated with criticisms from almost everyone – from my closest of friends to my closest of relatives. Feelings of some showed concern while those of others smacked of anxiety (for some spicy gossip).

“Why are you leaving such a high – paying job? Carry on with it and run your new company side-by-side,” my parents said when I apprised them of my decision.

“I have done so many things because somebody else wanted me to. Now, I want to listen to my heart and do what I want to. No salary, however high it may be, can now keep me from it. To answer you second question, if I start a company, I would want it to be the best in not just India but the entire world. Achieving this will be difficult if I worked part-time. I am getting into it full-time,” I said.

“Well, then why the hell do you want to start a publishing company? You are so qualified,” my parents said.

“Do you think Nestle is a good company?” I asked.

“Yes, it is. Do something like it.”

“What does Nestle do?” bang came my second question.

“It analyzes the market to understand market needs, decides the product attributes, manufactures the products and sells it through distributors and retailers.”

“Bang on! And this is almost what my company is going to do. The only difference is that Nestle’s products are chocolates, etc and my company’s products would be books, etc.”

I don’t know where that reply came from but it sure did its job.

After quitting my job in Dubai, I had been to my would-be in-laws’ home to meet my fiancé. My in-laws first lectured my fiancé about convincing me to join a job and forget about business. Once that failed, I was called into the hall by my parents-in-law and one of my elder sis-in-laws.

“Why are you quitting? Do not run away from problems. Face them. Further, the people of our community can never be good businessmen. Don’t be rigid. Join your job back. There is no “business line” in your palm,” my in-laws argued.

“Well, well…I am not running away from problems, I am running towards them. Entrepreneurship is one of the toughest things to take up. Jobs are easy. When I am dying, I do not want to have a feeling that I wanted to do something but ended up doing something else. I wouldn’t be able to reverse the time then and make it roll again. I want to die content and rich. I do not want a nice apartment in a posh locality; I want a bungalow there. I do not want a Honda City in my garage, I want BMW, Audi, Porsche and Ferrari in it. Regarding the community thing, I do not really believe in communities that much but if you all do believe in them, there’s always a first time. Let me set the trend for others in the community. As for the “business line” on my palm, I have heard old lines change and new lines appear; my “business line” will appear soon.” I replied.

I knew what was bothering my in-laws and my guess transformed into a fact that day itself.

When none of their arguments worked, my mother-in-law said,

“Son, nobody would like to marry her/his daughter to a guy who is jobless.”

I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard this. My mom-in-law is the sweetest human-being I have ever met in my life and I knew she loved me even more than she loved her daughters. And this is probably why her comment hurt so much. Whether that comment was just a trick to persuade me to join my job back or it was their serious concern, I still do not know.

I replied, “Marry your daughter to me only when you are convinced that I can take care of her financial needs. I know you think you will not feel proud of me the way you have been feeling for the past one year because in your views, I will be a jobless guy as you are not used to the idea of entrepreneurship. I know you are feeling embarrassed because you have already advertised about my current salary to your family and friends, and are thinking what you would tell them now. But should I change my decision just because of this? It is only me who is responsible for my future. I am pretty sure you would not want to take the blame for ruining my life if anything goes wrong in the future. I will listen to everyone…imbibe only that which is positive for I can’t afford negativity…and do what I think is right. I have already taken a decision and I will not change it.”

It was difficult for my parents and parents-in-law to adjust to my idea of entrepreneurship. My sis-in-law even forwarded my CV to a software company she worked in, in Pune. The HR head had called me up and interviewed me. I did enjoy the interview experience but after the interview he asked me,

“So, what are your salary expectations?”

“30 lakhs p.a,” I replied.

That guy lost words for a minute and said he would get back to me later. Man, I laughed my heart out. I told my fiancé about it and she told her sister. Her sister was mad at me like anything. She purportedly responded,

“What does Abhishek think of himself? Who the hell is he? I am trying to help him and he is acting smart?”

I never cared to reply because I was not answerable to her. I was answerable to my soul. I told my fiancé that I did not need anyone’s help. I know what I have to do and I will do it.

That night when all this happened, I took my fiancé Isha for a drive to marine lines.

“Isha, do I have your support?” I asked.

“Yes Abhi! I am there with you in whatever you do and I will never leave you alone. We will face this phase together,” she replied.

I never grilled her deep on this issue and she never expressed exactly what she felt about my plan. It was only later when I came to know what I couldn’t tacitly understand.

All this while, I always had two wonderful people supporting me unconditionally in my decision. One was of course, Isha and the other was my elder brother Anurag. When I had told him of my decision, his reply was, “When you have already taken a decision, there is no looking back. Go ahead bro! I am there with you.”

Eduwiser Publishing Group was then born with its Head Office at New Delhi and branch office at Patna. Name sounds good, doesn’t it??? We brainstormed a lot and came up with a lot of names. But this one was suggested by Anurag who is one of the most creative guys I have ever worked with.

What is Eduwiser about??? Well, we publish books, educational software, novels etc. Our job involves product conceptualization and design, production, manufacturing (printing), marketing and sales through different channels (distributors, retailers, online etc).

I knew I was just facing the strong, gusty winds of questions at the shore of an ocean of problems waiting to gulp me.

Aal is well, aal is well is what I said and set off into that ocean!!!

If you have any questions/comments, you can interact with me on www.facebook.com/abbyshekchandra