The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : Commendable

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Thursday, Jun 09, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Commendable

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa deserves to be congratulated on her decision to abolish the common entrance exam as it undoubtedly worked to the disadvantage of the rural poor, where the heart of India lies. It was indeed a masterstroke on her part. In the same breath, she should seriously consider strengthening the public education system and controlling the commercialisation of education by self-financing institutions. Otherwise, social commitment and idealism, which are important aspects of education and so essential to the future of the country, will not get the right emphasis.

N.G.R. Prasad,
Chennai

The move comes as a great relief to all, especially the middle class and rural people for whom the entrance examinations had become a nightmare. It is now time to do something about the attitude of schools and students towards XI standard course of study, hitherto relegated to insignificance. Continuous performance in X, XI and XII should be considered for admission to professional courses.

M.L. Raghavan,
Cheyyar, T.N.

The move is a pragmatic step towards achieving social justice. The Chief Minister should now turn her attention to examination reforms with special reference to higher secondary board examinations. She should think of ways to make them application-oriented, aimed at developing problem-solving skills and not at testing memory power.

She should also be wary of the pendulum swinging to the other extreme. It must be ensured that regular classrooms and schools are not converted into coaching centres, taking away the joy of learning.

J. Indra,
Chennai

The long-felt need of parents and Plus Two students has been fulfilled.

A. Jainulabdeen,
Chennai

Ms. Jayalalithaa's move is welcome. It takes two years of hard work for a student to score good marks in Plus Two. They should not be ignored or relegated to a secondary position. Entrance exams for almost all courses demoralise students.

C. Athi Pagavan,
Thiruvananthapuram

Two years of hard work by students was downgraded by two-month coaching by so-called experts. Students from rural areas, bereft of access to costly `expert' coaching, were left in the lurch, while their affluent urban cousins cornered the plum disciplines in prestigious institutions.

M.G. Premachandran,
Tiruchi, T.N.

While the Government's decision is welcome, it could have been implemented from the next academic year. The new system will no doubt encourage students to pay more attention to classroom teaching.

R. Akhil Ratheesh,
Thiruvananthapuram

If abolition of the common test was indeed the best way out, the students could have been made aware of the decision in advance — at least a year — so that they could have got their priorities right. Official ineptitude and knee-jerk reactions seem to have become the order of the day.

S. Rajan,
Manchester, U.K.

If the reason for the drastic move is the mushrooming of `coaching shops,' what about the mushrooming of State Board examination coaching centres? Coaching centres only empower students with the necessary skills to face the examinations and there is nothing wrong in them.

R. Varadarajan,
Srirangam, T.N.

Thanks to a common test, the issue of cut-off marks was resolved adequately and overlapping of marks was bare minimum. Board examination scores are normally whole integers. If the qualifying mark is computed based on them, a large number of students will end up with the same cut-off mark. The Government should come out with a fair and scientific overlap-resolution strategy.

T. Karthikeyan,
Madurai

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Commendable