CET abolished, confusion prevails
The high court recently upheld the validity of the state government’s policy to abolish the Common Entrance Test for professional courses. This would mean that this year students passing their class 12 examinations need not appear for yet another exam before entering government and self-financing engineering or medical colleges. The merit of the students will be decided solely on the basis of their performance in their class 12 exams.
Parties across the political spectrum have welcomed the decision. The state government had scrapped the exam because it said the move would help rural students. It was also reported that students in cities have better access to coaching institutions making them superior to their rural counterparts in the preparations for CET.
But there is a catch. With CET now gone, the competition between students who score similar marks stiffens. If say 400 of them score 200/200 in the main subjects such as physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology, then it becomes difficult to differentiate between them. Also more number of students are likely to want a re-evaluation and re-totalling of their marks. These numbers are usually high, but this year it’s expected to cross the 25,000 mark. A process called normalisation is being applied for the first time this year.
The counselling for admissions is likely to start soon. A lot of confusion is expected. Self-financing colleges across the state are already filling up their seats, reports say. They are exploiting the mad rush of students who fear that even a difference of one mark would cause their ranking to slide drastically. In some instances, colleges have also hiked their capitation fee.
The primary problem is the lack of educational infrastructure.
With the brain drain, even the few who manage to get higher education dissappear, even leaving faculty vacancies vacant.
The problems like cramming, reservations, etc., tormenting our education will be over only when the education sector gets proper funding – public or private.
Unfortunately, we still survive on educational infrastructure built in the times of Nehru and the British.
I don’t understand what the fuss is all about the CET. Whatever is asked in the entrance test is solely based on the 12th state syllabi – word by word. Just that problems and questions are twisted in a way such that people used to mugging and reproducting might get a little confused. This, in a way, gives the edge for people who really understand and study.
So if a person has scored well in 12th (not the mugging lot), am sure his chances to score well in CET (ofcourse with some extra effort) are good too. Where is there a differentiation of rurl or urban?
It acceptable if politicians talk about better facilities for rural students like commutation, books, tuitions but harping on CET looks like yet another gimmick.