
Let’s admit it that the plan to have ‘One Nation, One Education’ has got miserably derailed right at the starting line. The body which was proposed to bring uniformity in evaluating education prowess, the National Testing Agency (NTA), has just proved unequal to the job and shattered the confidence of a generation of students in the fairness of our education system.
First, it was the medical entrance examination (NEET), then the national eligibility test for lectureship (UGC-NET) and then the examination for the entrance of the students into the undergraduate programs of the various government universities (CUET). We are well past July 15, the sacrosanct date when the Delhi University would start a new session. This year even the admission process is still to start.
On the Friday just gone by, NTA held a re-test for over 1,000 CUET UG candidates, following complaints from candidates, including issues of time loss due to the distribution of the wrong question paper. This has further delayed the declaration of results which was originally scheduled to be released on June 30.
In their enthusiasm to be part of the ‘One Nation, One education’ philosophy, the administration of Delhi University mortgaged its autonomy in the admission process and rushed to be part of the scheme. Now the students of Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) are paying not just a heavy but a ‘costly’ price of it.
This uncertainty has brought a boom time for the private universities of the NCR, whose army of telecallers are virtually ‘blackmailing’ the students to secure a seat in their institutions rather than face an uncertain future. The government universities are preferred over most of the private universities for their legacy of quality education and highly subsidised fees.
The government may come out with an explanation that such students who manage to get admission to government universities could withdraw from private institutions. This is easier said than done. One there are very few who abide by the law just not in words but also in spirit and easily refund the fee otherwise it’s a cumbersome process.
To be fair to the self-financing institutions too, the withdrawal by the students in the middle of the session results in the seat remaining empty not just for the year but for the whole duration of the stay of that particular batch in the institution.
This leads to heavy loss of revenue affecting the teaching-learning process making at times running of the courses and the institution unviable.
Now coming to the loss for the students, a delayed admission means a delayed session. Surprisingly the mandarins of the two major undergraduate universities affected by the delayed CUET results– Delhi University and Ambedkar University of
Delhi, “the delay can be compensated holding extra classes in the evening after regular classes and also classes on weekends. Also, reduce the number of holidays to cover up.”
This is an example of an absolutely nonchalant attitude, care a damn about academic discourse on the campus. In its heyday the U-Special buses full of students arrived on Delhi University campus at 8.30 am and a majority of the students left by 12.30 pm, maximum by 1.30 pm and all by 3.30 pm. The 3.30 pm buses majorly had the science students who had their laboratory work to attend to.
Today absenteeism both among the students and the teachers is rampant. Bowing to the pressure from the absentee students of law faculty, Delhi University Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh gave them an unprecedented relief to write the examination. Given the prevailing environment will these ‘proposed extra classes’ be ever held?
Who really cares, the paperwork should be complete, as none in the system bothers to look beyond the sheaf of papers. Today Indian students are globally sustaining the education industry from Australia to Canada. Has anyone bothered to check on this exodus?
Expatriate Indians are the icons for the current generation and then one blames the parents for not inculcating ‘patriotism’ in their children. Nobody ever questions the mutilated, moth-eaten education system of this country which is suffering unprecedented loss of credibility.
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice