Reforms debate yet to reach closure

Updated on: Monday, October 24, 2011

The countdown to admissions to engineering courses in 2012 will soon begin amid apprehensions over whether the State government will continue the ongoing reforms in the admission process implemented this year, such a giving equal weight to the marks scored in the qualifying examination and the score in the entrance examination.

Parents and students who feared that the admissions this year would be entangled in unending courtroom battles heaved a sigh of relief when the Kerala High Court, on October 18, dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the reforms.

A Division Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair and Justice P.N. Gopinath, pointed out that it was not proper to intervene at this stage, as the admission process had been completed. The future of those students who had got admission in various colleges would otherwise be affected.

The petitioners, mainly students who pursued the Plus Two course in the streams of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Indian School Certificate (ISC), contended that they were denied equal opportunities in the normalisation process adopted for admissions.

Parents had also pointed out that the normalisation process adopted for bringing the marks scored by students from various boards in the qualifying examinations on an even footing favoured those who did their Plus Two course in the Kerala higher secondary stream. The petitioners argued that the exercise gave an undue advantage to the Kerala students.

Meeting soon

Education Minister P.K. Abdu Rabb told The Hindu-EducationPlus that the government would soon convene a meeting of the entrance examination reforms committee to discuss the steps to be taken for the next year's admissions. He said all concerns regarding the normalisation process would be taken up for a detailed discussion. The government was open to suggestions and would take steps to conduct the admission process in a transparent and professional manner.

Indicating that the first round of discussions over the entrance examination for 2012 is likely to start by the first week of November, B.S. Mavoji, Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, said his office would study the court order.

“We will also check if the High Court has given any suggestions aimed at improving the process,” he said.

K.P.P. Pillai, former Executive Secretary of the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), said the normalisation process had its own shortcomings. He said the time had come for a review of the method of giving equal weight to the marks in the qualifying examination and the score in the entrance examination.

Recalling that a member of the reforms committee had come out in the open against the implementation process recently, Dr. Pillai said the government could either do away with counting the marks of the Plus Two examination or scrap the entrance test and admit students on the basis of the marks scored in the qualifying examination.

He said the authorities this year struggled to get marks data essential for the normalisation from the boards in the country and abroad. The normalisation process would be incomplete even if the data from even one board was unavailable.

The Higher Education Department had faced difficulties this year when it could not collect the data from examination boards outside the country in the initial stages.

Dr. Pillai accepted the argument that the CBSE and the ISC students were at a disadvantage compared with those pursuing the Kerala stream. The evaluation pattern followed in the State helped the students get high marks, while their counterparts pursuing the CBSE and especially the ICSE streams never got marks beyond a stipulated level.

Dr. Pillai suggested that the government convene a meeting of experts to chalk out a concrete admission plan for engineering programmes next year. The authorities could seek the response of various stakeholders in the professional education sector in the State.

Agreeing to Dr. Pillai's suggestion for a rethink on the existing admission format, G.P.C. Nayar, president of the Federation of Associations of Private Unaided Professional Colleges, said the government could admit students either on the basis of the marks scored in the qualifying examination or based on the performance of the entrance examination from next year.

Mr. Nayar said the normalisation process could not succeed in earning the confidence of all the students. Many had complained that they were denied justice when a formula was applied for normalising the marks.

Complaining that the desired objective of recognising the performance of a student by considering the marks scored in qualifying examination could not be achieved for want of proper implementation of the normalisation process,

Mr. Nayar said the government could come up with an alternative that would help in ensuring the timely completion of the admission process in 2012.

But members of the entrance reforms committee cautioned that any move to do away with the 50:50 formula of evaluation would prove detrimental, as meritorious students would lose a chance to secure admission for professional courses. They said that equal weight should be given to the marks scored in the entrance examinations and the qualifying examination.

A senior committee member said that a multiple-choice-question-type examination was insufficient to decide if a candidate was suited for engineering or medical education. The government need not abolish the normalisation process but could plug the loopholes, if any, by next year, he said.

But parents of students in the CBSE and the ISC streams wanted the government to ensure justice to them at least by next year. They alleged that the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations had failed to consider their requests against the anomalies found in the normalisation process this time.

Parents who approached the Kerala High Court said the normalisation process had done injustice to students from the two streams. They saw considerable difference in the internal evaluation marks among the various streams of Plus Two courses. Students in the Kerala higher secondary stream receive grace marks, while those in the CBSE and the ISC streams did not enjoy such advantages.

Students who petitioned the High Court contended that the system of giving equal weight to marks in the qualifying examination and the entrance examination was unconstitutional. They said the regulations of the All India Council for Technical Education stated that only merit ranking in the entrance test should be the basis for admission to engineering degree courses.

Senior officials associated with the admission process for professional courses said the government would consider all options before taking a final decision next year. Efforts would be made to review the implementation of the normalisation process aimed at resolving the complaints by parents and students. The government would not act in haste while implementing various steps for a smooth and fair admission process next year.

Reforms debate yet to reach closure

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