Entrance reforms: changes ahead soon?

Updated on: Tuesday, July 28, 2009

In October 2006 when the State government appointed a seven-member committee to suggest steps to overhaul the engineering/medical entrance examinations in the State, the general expectation was that such reforms would be suggested and implemented immediately.

The committee—known widely as the R.V.G Menon Committee—submitted the interim recommendations in 2007, and some reforms were made in the entrance examinations of 2008. The time for the examinations was extended by 30 minutes and the minimum marks in the qualifying examination for a candidate attempting the MBBS/BDS examinations were raised to 50 per cent.

In May 2008, when the committee submitted its final recommendations, it was expected that those recommendations—which were immediately accepted in principle by the government—would be implemented for the entrance examinations of 2009. There were many who were disappointed when this did not materialise. There were others who feared—and with justification—that these reform would get buried for a long time in the maelstrom kicked up by the ‘self-financing colleges issue’.

Now, after months of internal deliberations the Department of Higher Education seems to have given a final shape to the intended reforms. The department has finally okayed the 50:50 formula proposed by the committee for preparing the rank list for admission to professional courses.

That is, equal weightage would be given to marks scored in the entrance examinations and for those scored in the qualifying examination. The committee’s logic was that a Multiple Choice Question (MCQ)-type examination was insufficient to decide whether a candidate was suited for engineering/ medical education. The committee also suggested another formula for normalising—making comparable—the marks scored in various streams of examinations such as the ICSE, CBSE and the State higher secondary examinations. The marks or grades scored by a candidate for the relevant subjects—in the CBSE, ISC or other equivalent streams—will be standardised using the mean score and standard deviations.

The standardised scores for each subject will then be “mapped” to the higher secondary platform using the mean and standard deviations in this examination. This score will then be placed on a scale of 0 to 100. The marks scored by a candidate in the entrance examination will also be placed on such a scale. Both these scores, calculated to an accuracy of four decimal points, will determine the position of a candidate in the entrance rank list. While the State higher education department has okayed this formula, the proposal would now have to go to the Medical Council of India and to the All India Council for Technical Education for their approval.

“The MCI regulations speak of a common entrance examination to overcome the vagaries of marks in different streams. When we go beyond this and introduce another element in our ranking, we have to get their clearance,” committee member and health activist C.R. Soman told The Hindu-Educationplus. “We are making this proposal at a time when there appears to be a totally preposterous move in a section of the MCI to introduce a country-wide single entrance examination for admission to MBBS programmes. We are asking for 50 per cent weightage for qualifying examination marks because we feel the MCQ model is like winning a lottery. Now, are we headed for a nation-wide lottery?” Dr. Soman asked.

But if such a weightage is to have any meaning, the government must ensure that the committee’s recommendations on reforms in the higher secondary sector are implemented .

Among other things the committee has asked for external evaluation, introduction of the false numbering system, double valuation in a ‘camp mode’ and valuation of HSE and VHSE papers under a single board.

The committee has also made its views on internal evaluation in the higher secondary sector, very clear. “…This would mean that in the first two or three years, the internal evaluation scores and practical examination marks should not be counted. Once the reforms in the Higher Secondary Education suggested below are implemented, and the internal evaluation system attains a higher degree of robustness and objectivity, the government may use the internal evaluation and practical examination marks also for admissions to the professional colleges in Kerala,” the committee’s report reads.

However, the fact that there have been no structured discussions on the proposed reforms in the higher secondary sector is proving worrisome.

According to committee members who interacted with The Hindu-Educationplus, the recommendations for the 50:50 weightage and for reforms in the higher secondary examinations are the ones to be implemented on a priority basis.

Not that the other recommendations can be taken lightly. The committee has called for instituting a question bank containing thousands of questions in all the relevant subjects. The questions should be graded for difficulty levels and should be selected for inclusion in the question paper through a software.
Limiting chances

The Department of Higher Education is understood to have also okayed the committee recommendation to limit the number of chances a candidate can have to attempt the engineering/medical entrance; the committee has recommended two chances for a candidate in the general category, four for candidates from the Scheduled Caste communities, and no upper limit in chances for candidates from Scheduled Tribe communities.

Yet another recommendation of the committee over which the government has not acted so far, is on granting autonomy to the office of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations.

Established in 1983, the commissionerate is widely acknowledged to be overworked while being understaffed and ill-equipped. Also, the CEE’s office can certainly do with much more IT-enabling.

Given the present political situation pertaining to educational initiatives in Kerala, all these recommendations may now have to go through various political committees. How long, this would take, is beyond any prediction.

Entrance reforms: changes ahead soon?

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