Few girls in IIT, more in other engg courses

Anubhuti Vishnoi : New Delhi, Tue Aug 28 2012, 03:57 hrs

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/few-girls-in-iit-more-in-other-engg-courses/993977/

The Kota coaching factor still plays a key role in the IITs admission process, girls still opt less for these 15 institutes
than for engineering courses elsewhere, and state school boards send the most students to IITs,
according to an analysis of the patterns in the Joint Entrance Examination results of 2012.
The analysis, presented today at the meeting of the Joint Admission Board, found that girls comprise a mere 10 per cent of
admissions to the 15 IITs after cracking JEE but 30-40 per cent in other engineering institutes, including several prestigious ones.
An IIT professor says the coaching industry is a key factor in the current JEE system;
 most parents prefer not to send their daughters to coaching classes at far flung Kota or Hyderabad.
The analysis, conducted by the IITs, also examined the general student profile and found it is once again the middle class and urban India that dominates JEE.
 Jaipur and Hyderabad top the list with their dominant coaching culture, followed by Delhi; Kanpur, Lucknow and Allahabad too are in the top 10 cities sending students to IITs.
Of students who cracked JEE, 40 per cent students came from the CBSE; of those who reached the IITs, 50 per cent come from state boards.
 The ICSE and other school boards had poor representation. Prof S G Dhande, director of IIT Kanpur, says the analysis only reinforces the need to reinvent the JEE.
“It is clear that coaching is a very real factor giving students an extra edge at clearing JEE. That fewer girls make it is also linked to this factor.
The analysis only draws attention to the urgent need to make this examination a more dynamic and responsive system that is modern rather than orthodox,” Prof Dhande told The Indian Express.

For 2013, the top 1.5 lakh from JEE Main will be eligible for JEE Advanced.