Monday, August 31, 2015

Maharashtra's CET decision alarms junior colleges

PUNE: Junior colleges in the city are disappointed with the state government's decision to eliminate weightage of standard XII marks in engineering and medical college admissions from next year.

With almost 40% of the engineering seats in the state remaining vacant this year, the state government issued a resolution on Saturday which said that the Maharashtra common entrance test (MH-CET) will be conducted for 2016-17 for engineering and medical admissions, thereby, eliminating weightage of Std XII.

Educationists said that the state government has lowered the bar for education with this decision as students would concentrate only on the entrance exams in their two years of junior college, while standard XII exams would be completely ignored.

According to the new notification issued on Saturday, no weightage will be given to standard XII marks for engineering admissions as was done in the last two years. The test will be entirely based on the state board syllabus.

The Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teacher's Organisation (MFUCTO) has said that if the standard XII exams are not considered for engineering and medical admissions then a majority of the students interested in these two fields will take the standard XII exams for granted.

President of MFUCTO Shivajirao Patil said, "The students will stop taking the board exams seriously. Colleges try hard to ensure that students attend classes regularly and not depend only on private coaching class. However, this decision will worsen the situation."

The students seeking admission for medical and engineering courses need eligibility of 50% marks in physics, chemistry and mathematics/biology subjects, which junior college officials have said that is easily achievable given the internal assessments.

Surekha Rane, a junior college principal in the city, said, "The internal assessment helps students earn good marks to get 50% marks in these subjects. It is not very difficult even for the poor performing students. If students with low scores in standard XII, get into engineering colleges with just the CET scores, then the quality of engineers passing out four years later would be really poor."

The entrance test will go back to the pattern followed till 2012, before the Centre mooted the idea of a common entrance test for engineering and medical admissions. While physics and chemistry will be common subjects for all, biology marks will be considered for admission to health science courses and mathematics for engineering aspirants. A separate merit list will be drawn for engineering and medical admissions based only on the CET scores.

Education expert Durgesh Mangeshkar said, "By announcing that entrance test scores would be considered for engineering and medical entrance test, it shows that the state government has lowered the bar for education instead of increasing the standards. From student's point of view, it will be easier for them as those who want to get into engineering and medical will know that they have to prepare for the entrance only and just pass with 50% marks in standard XII exams. Now, more students will be inclined towards taking up the test."

Mangeshkar also pointed out that the decision has been largely taken to fill up the rising number of vacant engineering seats in the state every year. "With more students attempting the exam and focusing on preparing for the CET, the number of students clearing the exam will go up, which will increase the chances of filling up the engineering seats. However, this will also lead to more unemployed students after the engineering degree," he said.

This year, of the total 1.3 lakh engineering seats in the state, more than 60,000 seats remained vacant after all rounds of the Common Admission Process (CAP) and counselling ended on July 26. Nearly 40% seats would not be filled this year.

TOI 31-8-15

No comments:

Post a Comment