Intense JEE coaching a trigger for burnout among IITians

Students study for six-and-half days a week with no games, no novels, no music from as early as class 6-8 till their class 12 just to crack JEE. But, can they carry on like this for next four years when in IIT? - Ramesh Loganathan PROF. IT HYDERABAD

- Donita.Jose timesgroup.com

Hyderabad: Do we really need to suck the joy out of the lives of young students so that they clear the Joint Entrance Exam JEE) and pin the medal of being an IITian on their chest? Is there a problem with the teaching methods at some of the coaching centres in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana-focused onrotelearningthat makes it more difficult for students to survive in the competitive environment on the Indian Institute of Technology IIT) campuses?

These are just two of the many questions that academics have started to ask after a string of suicides in the elite engineering schools. TOI reported on Thursday that at least 15 Telugu students have killed themselves after making it to the IITs in the past eight years.

The impact of these numbers can be gauged from the fact that on an average, Hyderabad-based JEE coaching institutes, with centres in other states, claim to add 25,000 students from all over the country to the IIT pool every year. This is at least half of the total count of 40712 candidates qualifying for the premier institutes.

Is it normal to study six & half days a week: Expert 

In fact, two of the popular JEE coaching based schools in the city Banjara Hills SI dies by suicide; was on maiden posting — Sri Chaitanya and Narayana Group of Educational Institutions — recently claimed that nearly 30 students from each qualified in the top 100 Open Category All India ranks. Of the two, Narayana stated that they had five toppers in top 10, majority of them from the Telugu states.