Entrance examinations for science and technology

摘要

The history of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the current state of their joint entrance examinations have an important lesson for higher education in science and technology. The IITs were originally created to produce a skilled workforce of scientists and engineers to support the economy and society of the newly independent India, and to represent 'India's urges, India's future in the making'. IIT Kharagpur, the first of the IITs, was set up in 1950. Over the next decade came four more, and together, the five IITs played a pivotal role in the growth of science and technology in the country. An IIT degree became a brand name, and IIT graduates came to enjoy high prestige among both the top employers in India and admission committees in the best universities in the world. Admission to an IIT developed into a middle-class Indian's dream. One consequence was that IITs soon had to deal with hundreds of thousands of aspiring students. Given the prestige associated with the IIT degree, theeducational goals implicit in the IIT entrance examination shape the nature of learning among high school students; at least the pragmatic and highly motivated students intent on an IIT degree tend to focus on what they perceive as essential for entrance into an IIT, and end up ignoring the rest of what school education offers. It is important, therefore, that the community of science educators and administrators keep a careful watch over these entrance examinations as one of the factors influencing the future of science education and research in the country.