It is time to redraw the admission process
A few days ago, I happened to have interacted with a group of principals of colleges that have had a fairly good track record over the last several years. During that discussion I detected a common refrain that expressed a sense of concern over the ability of the Centralised University Entrance Test (CUET) scores to accurately reflect the quality and talent of students in the merit list.
Of course, the principals were all unanimous in the need and value of something like the CUET. But they were more concerned with the problem of students not paying enough attention to their regular curriculum as prescribed by various school boards such as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Instead, as the principals felt, the students seem to be far more attentive towards getting good scores in the CUET. The end result, as perceived by the principals, was that the students entering the portals of their colleges were generally ill-prepared academically.
This problem has been around in significant measure from much before the launch of the CUET. Actually, such a situation had begun to prevail ever since middle-class India became obsessed with the IIT and medical entrance examinations. The only saving grace at that time was that a very large body of students were neither attracted nor eligible for these examinations.
Also, though small, there were still a significant number of students even from the sciences streams who were not interested in appearing for the IIT entrance examinations. The upshot of the existence of this group had been that so many of them were quite intent on pursuing undergraduate academic degrees outside of the engineering and medical streams. In 2011, as the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University, I took advantage of the existence of this body of students and created some innovative programmes at the undergraduate level.
This Innovation Centre itself had been created by me to tap into such students who needed creative outlets outside of the standard engineering and medical programmes. The quality of these degree programmes can be gauged by the fact that a much-acclaimed global IT company hailed these students as far more innovative and creative than most students from the engineering streams of many prestigious institutions. The students were of a very different mindset and would never have been spotted or ranked very highly in the CUET merit list. They were admitted through an original and creative written examination that brooked no prior preparation or tutoring.
Lest I may have created a one-sided view let me endorse what the group of principals had expressed about the need of the CUET. The test has been devised with the best of intentions—to stem the rather runaway attitude of most school boards which had acquired the habit of awarding extraordinarily high scores to their students. Such a practice too was also causing harm.
Perhaps the best way forward is to redraw the admissions process and draw a balance between weightages being awarded to the CUET and to what the school boards award. This should be done with the proviso that the results must be subjected to a well-thought process of normalisation.
To that extent one possible issue that may happen is that students may begin to start paying attention to their school curriculum and actually acquire some originality and knowledge in the process. After all, the highly acclaimed National Education Policy says so much and so wisely about school education. It shall be a pity if we allow all that wisdom to go waste.
Dinesh Singh
Former Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University; Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, University of Houston, US
Posts on X: @DineshSinghEDU