Private colleges clamour to discontinue JET in Punjab

Updated on: Thursday, January 17, 2013

Even as Punjab government is bracing itself to hold the statewide joint entrance test (JET) for admission to polytechnic colleges, the clamor by private colleges to discontinue the test has grown louder. With less than one-fourth seats being filled than the students taking the exams, the futility of the exercise, proving to be expensive for the cash-strapped government, is being questioned.

The JET is conducted for admission in polytechnic colleges of Punjab and is followed by online counselling for filling of seats. Last year, around 1.2 lakh students applied for the entrance test and less than 90,000 students finally took the test. However, at the end of the exercise, which involved the teachers, principals, employees of the education department in holding the exam at over 400 examination centres in the state, less than one-fourth seats were filled. This has led to a large number of seats falling vacant in the state's colleges. Out of the 53,000 seats in polytechnics across the state, only 35,000 were filled last year, with 20,000 seats falling vacant.

This despite the fact that the state government, desperate to fill seats, had offered "incentive" of Rs 10 per form to teachers filling it. The move, however, boomeranged as at the end of the exercise, the government spent, said sources in the technical education department, around Rs 5 crore to cover costs for this initiative.

"It had become a business for the teachers who filled forms of every one they came by. This is evident from the fact that nearly 30,000 students who had filled forms did not even appear for the test," said Rajneesh Syal, a teacher in a polytechnic institute in Bathinda.

A delegation of Punjab Unaided Technical Institutions Association had met the principal secretary technical education, A R Talwar, on Thursday last week and demanded that JET be scrapped. Speaking to TOI, Talwar said, "Though there is a demand to scrap the test, we are weighing all options. So far, we have been holding the test, though seats are more than the students, to maintain a degree of merit. But we are looking at other options and studying how other states are filling their seats."

Dr Amarpal Singh, secretary, Punjab State Board of Technical Education & Industrial Training said, "The JET is being held to allow a plain field for meritorious students to join institutes of repute and ensure that merit gets full credit. It ensures that a degree of standard of education is maintained in the state and the private colleges are not allowed to fleece students at will. It is in the interest of the students that the test is being held."

Number of seats in polytechnic institutes in Punjab - 53,000

Number of seats left vacant - 20,000

Number of students who filled forms for JET - 1.2 lakh

Students who took test - 89,000

Private colleges clamour to discontinue JET in Punjab

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