KOCHI: The state government’s decision not to consider the Standardisation Review Committee’s suggestion that implementing a new formula this year is not feasible has backfired with the High Court rejecting the last-minute change in the prospectus of the Kerala Engineering, Architecture, and Medical Entrance Examination (KEAM).
The committee’s suggestion that “introducing a new formula or making any modifications to the existing one would only be possible after thorough and detailed studies” was produced before the High Court following its directive. Though the government had admitted the existence of the report, it was not placed before the court earlier. As per the report, the government was asked to ensure that any new formula implemented is “demonstrably better than the current one”.
However, the committee recommended that in the current year, the number of years should be reduced to 5 years for the calculation of ‘overall mean and standard deviation.’
The committee suggested to revise the existing 50:50 weightage ratio currently applied between the normalised entrance examination marks and the standardised total marks/grades obtained in the qualifying examination (final year) to a new ratio of 60:40 (Entrance score : 60, Qualifying score: 40). This proposal regarding weightage ration was agreed upon by three members, while one member, Sivakumar, expressed dissent.
As per the report, based on the preliminary observations, the method that uses statistical parameters such as Overall Range, Group Minimum, and Group Range was considered by the committee members to be the most appropriate. But implementing the new method this year would not be scientifically appropriate, as a more comprehensive study is required to make an authoritative comparison with the current method.
It was also noted that the formula was tested using only a very limited sample and that the parameters used in the formula were derived from that sample itself.
Therefore, the committee concluded that a decision can only be made after standardising the Plus II marks of applicants, both qualified and non-qualified, from various boards across different subjects for the past 10 years, applying the new formula to this complete data set, and comparing it with the existing method.
Since the software currently used for the existing method is available at the CEE office, the committee members suggested that the CEE office would be the most convenient one for testing the new formula.
However, it was clarified by the Joint Commissioner (Computer) that the available software is designed to work after the standardisation is done using the required parameters, and that the derivation of those parameters is the responsibility of the currently appointed Standardisation Committee.
ABOUT THE COMMITTEE
The committee was constituted with Dr Arun S Nair, Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, as the convenor, Prof Dr Sankaran P G, former VC of CUSAT, Prof Dr Somesh Kumar, Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Dr E V Gijo, Senior Technical Officer, Statistical Quality Controller and Operations, Statistical Institute, Bengaluru Centre, and Dr Sivakumar K S, (Retired) Research Officer, SCERT, as other members.
The panel was appointed to review the existing standardisation method used to calculate the standardised marks for the eligibility test
What the court said
The Bench pointed out that the report of the standardisation review committee, which has been relied on by counsel on both sides, would make it explicit that the committee has opined that introducing a new formula or making any modification to the existing one would be possible only after a thorough and detailed study.