ADILABAD: The Covid-19 has created a piquant situation for the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technologies (RGUKT), popularly known as Basra IIIT. As all the students of SSC have been declared passed without examinations, the university officials are racking their brains as to how go ahead with the selection of students for admission to the six-year integrated course in various disciplines of engineering.
Though the Education Department has given grades, based on the formative assessment tests (FAT) held at the school level at the end of the year, which are more or less like school final exams, the officials believe that they cannot totally rely on these scores since throughout the year the students had to attend online classes and no one knows much the students had grasped from this hitherto unfamiliar medium of instruction. For the RGUIT, since its establishment in 2007-08, the selection is based on students merit in the SSC examination.
Educationists, parents want IIIT Basara to conduct entrance examination
The varsity does not hold any entrance examination. The officials are now wondering what they should do because if they take students based on the grades given considering their performance in the formative assessment tests, there is a risk of the students admitted not being able to follow the syllabus in the six-year course at IIIT. Several educationists and students’ parents want the university to hold an entrance examination to select bright students for admission or the standard of education would further plummet.
After the bifurcation of the State, the AP government had been holding entrance examination for its IIIT engineering colleges but at IIIT Basara, the old tradition of admitting students based on merit is still continuing. Though the IIIT was set up with an intention to churn out industry-ready students, no major campus recruitment took place since standard of education kept falling, leaving industry unimpressed.
The students after completion of the six-year course are going in for competitive examinations as they are not able to land jobs in the IT or technology sectors. Several of them opted for jobs in the government sector. Another reason for the standard to remain low is because the priority for admission is given to students from government schools. For the integrated sixyear course, the IIIT Basara has 1,500 seats of the 85 per cent of seats are reserved for TS and the remaining are for non-local candidates. Last year, the college received 40,158 applications and this year, it might be even more as about two lakh students got GPA of 10.
When contacted, Collegiate Education and Technical Education Commissioner Naveen Mittal said: “Since Class X students were given grace marks, we are contemplating to admit students to IIIT Basara, Adilabad on the basis of their performance in Polytechnic Common Entrance Test ( POLYCET) entrance exam this year.” He said the government has not yet got any communication from the IIIT Basara but at the moment it is being considered that an entrance examination has to be held to select students. “A decision would be announced soon,” he said.