PUDUCHERRY: The DMK has demanded the AINRC– BJP (NDA) government in Puducherry make its stance clear on Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET ), announced by the UGC recently. After NEET, now Puducherry students will have to appear for CUET for admissions to colleges, with all colleges affiliated to Pondicherry University, a central university.
The CUET is a common entrance test introduced by the UGC for admission to undergraduate courses in all the 45 central universities in the country. It will be mandatory for the students to appear in it to take admissions in the undergraduate programmes offered by these 45 central universities of India. The test will be held in the first week of July, which is a computerised exam and will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), based on NCERT textbooks. The application window for the examination will open in the first week of April, as per the announcement made by UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar. This effectively means that performance in the Class 12 Board examination will no longer be a factor in admissions across Central universities.
In Puducherry, students depend on Pondicherry University, the only university in UT, with there being no state universities. With Pondicherry University in the list of 45 universities mandating CUET, this would mean that students will have to take CUET for admissions to not only undergraduate courses in University but also in the colleges, which are all affiliated to Pondicherry University.
It is an act of depriving the poor, the common people, the backward, the most backward, the Scheduled Castes, and the rural people to access higher education, charged leader of opposition and DMK state convenor R Siva. That is, as the questionnaire for the NEET exam, the CUET questionnaire will be prepared from the NCERT syllabus. This creates difficulties for students studying in the state curriculum from going to higher education. Thus several may go back to normal occupations and work and the dropout rate will increase after the 12th class. So the percentage of students in higher education will decrease. Due to this CUET coaching centers like NEET coaching centres will spring up to swindle poor students.
Students are already suffering due to the lack of local reservation in the courses that can offer employment at the Central University in Puducherry. In this situation, if the CUET exam is introduced, the students of Puducherry will not be able to pursue higher education at the Pondicherry University, said Siva.
Tamilnadu Chief Minister has already announced that the CUET examination will not be allowed in Tamil Nadu universities. Similarly, Pondicherry Chief Minister Rangasamy should immediately announce the position of the AINRC-BJP coalition government in the CUET exam that will shatter the higher education dream of poor, grassroots students.
A resolution has already been passed in the Pondicherry Assembly against the National Education Policy, he said and urged the government to ensure higher education to students without any hindrance.