Multiple test symptom of admission virus

The diversity of school education across different states and the aspirational careers of the current youth necessitate a tweaked CET to accommodate local sensitivities
For representative purposes only (Photo | Prasant Madugula/ EPS)
For representative purposes only (Photo | Prasant Madugula/ EPS)

The number of entrance exams written by students for admission to professional colleges is directly proportional to the torturous burden on students’ physical and psychological capacity. This torture is celebrated by institutions who boast of meteoric rise in their application sales. Even the National Testing Agency application fee, which ranges from Rs 650 to Rs 1,300 as the case may be, is a tall order to which is added the multiple application fee each of ‘premier and premium’ institutions which is over Rs 1,000. Is there a solution to reduce the burden—financial and psychological—and also remove the questionable application sales-admitted seats as a barometer for quality? Read further.

The draft of the much-awaited New Education Policy contemplates a Common Entrance Test (CET) for students, conducted for different subjects for multiple times a year. This CET policy was recommended in the 1986 education policy and should have galvanised student-intelligentsia in the last three decades but unfortunately kept in cold storage. The diversity of school education across different states and the aspirational careers of the current youth necessitate a tweaked CET to accommodate local sensitivities. Such a customised common entrance test will be a win-win to all stakeholders and reduce the financial and psychological burden on students. Also, when majority of the top scorers in JEE-Main do well in JEE-Advanced, the need for a separate JEE-Advanced to only prove a non-existent point is sheer waste of resources in addition to the psychological strain of students. At a time when IITs have been ‘McDonaldised’, the need for a specialised entrance exam requires a relook. 

Proponents of separate entrance exams argue that the Supreme Court in the TMA Pai Foundation case has upheld the right of unaided professional colleges to admit students. To top this, is added glamour for the application sales-seats ratio which is paraded as a progressive statistic to reflect quality of an institution. A CET test doesn’t snatch the right legitimised by the apex court as each institution can admit students by themselves except that they need to use the CET score and not their own entrance exam. This shall also arrest the meteoric rise in application sales by those conducting own entrance exams. The Harvard Business School (HBS) is undoubtedly one of the premier B-schools in the world with an application-admission ratio of 12:1, 12 applications sold for every student admitted. Some Indian institutions have a ratio of 25:1. Does this mean they are better than Harvard? Definitely not. Students here are forced to buy application before a deadline that is even before the start of their high school exams. Harvard’s last date is after the candidate is aware of his/her competitive exam score.  Customised CET, to begin with Deemed Universities and extended later to all professional colleges over a period of three years with unaided institutions admitting students based on CET scores, can be done satisfying the triple test laid down by the Supreme Court—Fairness, Transparency and Non-exploitation. Is anybody willing to kill this admission virus with its multiple test symptom?

S Vaidhyasubramaniam

Vice-Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University

vaidhya@sastra.edu

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