JEE/NEET Foundation — Myth and Reality

Isn’t the IITJEE / NEET Foundation course is very catchy for all parents who are dreaming to send their ward to IIT / Medical colleges? Foundation courses are very popular among junior-grade students across different cities in India. The courses are often marketed in the name of IITJEE / NEET foundation and the parents are lured to get their children into the course to fulfill their dream of sending their wards to an institute of repute.

What is Foundation?

Lets’ try to understand what is the foundation and its objective. The philosophy of the foundation is to build a conceptual base for the students which nowadays is largely missing among the students. The reason, perhaps, lies in the poor design of the curriculum now standing obsolete and it is coupled with poor academic delivery in schools mostly by untrained faculties.

Conceptual understanding requires curriculum to be linked with activities-based learning which unfortunately is not a part of the present system. Currently, the system focuses on theoretical learning, which often ends up mugging the content with the sole objective of maximizing the marks. School’s academic delivery, therefore, is more oriented towards making students sensitive to fetching marks than the conceptual understanding of the subject.

Foundation courses, therefore, are required to strengthen the conceptual base of the students.

What is IITJEE / NEET foundation?

IITJEE / NEET foundation is the brainchild of coaching institutes and its sole objective is to sensitize parents to their dreams of sending their wards to IITs / Medical colleges. Is it possible to coach the students of classes VI — X for IIT / NEET? The answer is just not possible as at this age neither it is required nor their brain mature enough to take such pressure. All JEE or NEET foundation courses have nothing to do for any coaching for IIT or NEET and they end up teaching the students some higher stuff. In mos tof the coaching institute, the foundation course often ends up teaching class XI content to class X and XI students. It unnecessarily creates a burden and pressurizes not only the students but their parents as well.

Solution

1. Undoubtedly foundation course is needed but it has to be strictly based on the respective curriculum and not beyond it. Cell biology, for instance, is taught from class VIII to M.Sc. but there is no point to teach class XI content to class IX in the name of the foundation. It will end up killing the inquisitiveness of the students and their instinct of learning.
2. Modern tool to recapitalize the concept is needed. Mindmaps tool could be the solution. (Read Mind Maps — Physic Foundation — Class X)
3. Aptitude for correlative study is required and techniques of mind maps could be very handy.
4. Must prepare for competitive exams like — Olympiads, NTSE etc.