The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Continuation of EAMCET favoured

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 20, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Continuation of EAMCET favoured

By Our Staff Reporter

ANANTAPUR, DEC. 19. Speakers at a workshop on EAMCET conducted here today by the High Power Committee (HPC) set up by the State Council of Higher Education favoured continuation of the entrance test for admission to engineering, agriculture and medicine courses.

The HPC chairman and former Vice Chancellor of JNTU, P. Dayaratnam, the members -- former Vice Chancellor of NTR University of Health Sciences, G. Shamsunder, former Director of collegiate education, T. Venkat Reddy, and former principal of St. Francis Degree College, Begumpet, Romana Fernandes -- and Y.V. Ramanaiah of Sri Krishnadevaraya University chaired the workshop.

Poor response

Lack of publicity for the workshop led to poor response by parents, student organisations and general public. Students mobilised from a few colleges and a few teachers participated in the workshop.

Almost all the speakers who expressed their opinion at the workshop favoured continuation of EAMCET stating that it would comprehend the skill and merit of the students. At a time when professional education was totally commercialised EAMCET was keeping it within the reach of at least a small section of merit students from the poor families, they said.

Stating that EAMCET would help in building a competitive spirit among the students from Intermediate level, Prof. Kumaraswamy Raju of SKU said it would also help the students get a better hold on the subject with repeated revision. There was no necessity of EAMCET, provided Intermediate examinations were conducted without any loopholes and irregularities.

Shortcomings

Intermediate marks could not be taken as a benchmark to test the real merit of students, said Swetha, a B.Sc. first year student. She opined that evaluating the merit in Intermediate had several shortcomings. She also disfavoured reservation in EAMCET stating that it was depriving merit students' chances.

Another B.Sc. first year student, Neelima, suggested 90 per cent multiple choice questions and 10 per cent fill in the blanks in EAMCET would help evaluate the students' skill better. R. Venkat Reddy, C.R. Reddy of SKU, Nirmalamma of SSBN college were among others who favoured continuation of EAMCET.

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Andhra Pradesh