New Delhi, Jan. 1: Arjun Singh may be giving it his best shot but his ministry’s attempts to rein in coaching schools don’t seem to be working out.

At least that is what the Forum for IIT-JEE (FIT-JEE), one of the top coaching centres with 18 branches in India, is claiming.

“Our intake of students has definitely not gone down,” says FIT-JEE spokesman Rakesh Lalla.

He feels more and more students will enrol at coaching centres because the human resource development ministry has lowered the standard of the IIT joint entrance exam.

“There will be more and more students who would want to get into IITs,” he says. At present, 2 lakh students appear for IIT JEE, of which only 4,800 make it.

Since 1980, coaching centres have been proliferating both in big cities and small towns like Kota. Kota is dotted with coaching centres attended by students from across India.

This September, the ministry announced a string of reforms for the JEE. It did away with the system of two levels of exam ? a screening test and the main exam ? for admission to the IITs.

The new system has only one exam which will be a combination of objective- and subjective-type questions.

“We are a bit unsure about the new pattern of question papers. What we have to do is change the coaching approach,” says Lalla.

Earlier, the JEE question papers tested subjective knowledge. “Now we have to teach students how to crack a question paper which will be more objective. We will no longer have to go very deep into a subject,” he says.

The HRD ministry’s reform package has made it mandatory for every IIT aspirant to score a minimum 60 per cent in the board exam to be eligible for JEE. The perception in the ministry was that students were neglecting board exams and concentrating on tutorials.

Lalla does not agree. “This decision does not appear relevant at all. Not even one per cent of students who make it to IIT get less than 60 per cent.”

The ministry has also said that students can attempt the JEE only twice. So far, there was no bar on the number of attempts.

After the reform package triggered an outcry from parents and students, the ministry was forced to relax the rules for 2006.

Lalla does not foresee any hurdles in the way of coaching centres. “All we have to do is reorient our coaching model,” he says.

“There can never be any decline in the demand for coaching centres. They will remain as long as there is an urge for excellence and competition.”

Lalla says the craze to get into IITs will ensure that coaching centres continue to flourish. “Everybody today has money. Parents would like to see their children in IITs,” he says.