COIMBATORE: Barely two years after the Union HRD Ministry made it mandatory for aspiring university and college teachers to pass the National Eligibility Test (NET), the University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to review the relevance of the examination.
At its 483rd meeting held in New Delhi last month, the UGC decided that “a separate meeting of the commission should be held to discuss the relevance and necessity of the NET examination.” “We felt there is a need to reconsider the dynamics of NET and the way the exam is conducted. Although the pass percentage in NET is very low, university rank holders and teachers with over 10 years experience have failed to clear the examination. In contrast, some fresh graduates have got through easily.
Hence, there is a need for a thorough evaluation of NET,” a member of the UGC said.
According to him, another view was that there is no corelation between the first two papers and the third paper, which is descriptive in nature.
“There is an argument that NET fails to examine the teaching capacity of candidates.
Even school teachers get a year’s training (in pedagogy) while pursing BEd. But in the university system, a newly recruited teacher (appointed on the basis of a NET) has no formal training except for a three-month stint at the Academic Staff College,” he explained.
If NET is eventually abolished, it would bring cheer to thousands of serving college and university teachers and MPhil degree holders whose future is hanging fire ever since it was made mandatory for them to clear the NET to continue in service.
However, there are apprehensions that recruiting faculty sans a NET qualification would lower the quality of teaching in higher educational institutions.