The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : How will the CET Bill surmount court norms?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

How will the CET Bill surmount court norms?

K. Ramachandran

NEWSANALYSIS The State could again face legal hurdles

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Regulation of Admission in Professional Courses Bill, 2006, that seeks to scrap the common entrance test (CET) for State Board students while making it mandatory for students of other Boards, has raised a debate on how it will surmount regulations and orders of the Supreme Court governing admissions to professional courses.

It will be a repeat of the hurdles the Government encountered last year, when it sought to scrap the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination (TNPCEE). Then, the Madras High Court reversed the G.O. citing the regulations of the Medical Council of India and the All-India Council for Technical Education.

Regulations of Graduate Medical Education 1997 under the MCI state: "In States having more than one university/board/ examining body conducting qualifying examination (or where there is more than one medical college) under the administrative control of one authority, a competitive entrance examination should be held to achieve uniform evaluation as there may be variation in standards at qualifying examination conducted by different agencies."

The State Board's higher secondary examination question papers are mostly descriptive, having only 30 objective questions.

The intended form of the CET will be a fully objective paper, while the CBSE Board paper for standard XII is a combination of descriptive and objective questions.

Commenting on the difference between Board examination and the CET, former director of admissions at Anna University P.V. Navaneethakrishnan says: "We have seen people who get centum in Plus Two mathematics get 20 or 30 out of a score of 50 in CET. This is because the TNPCEE questions are from within the State Board syllabus, but from outside the textbooks."

In essence, students from two different platforms are to be evaluated and equated through the TNPCEE. "The objective of a CET is to evaluate students from all Boards under a common yardstick," says Salem-based analyst Jayaprakash Gandhi.

Almost all sections are concerned that the Bill does not spell out the ranking methodology for the two student groups.

Last year, 349 candidates had the same cut-off score of 199.25 out of 200 in the medical group. Over 1,000 students scored more than 199.25/200. It is not yet clear how they are to be ranked — whether by weightage in different subjects or age-wise seniority.

Says Mr. Gandhi: "As of now only Government colleges are covered by the TNCPEE. Even the Bill says that the Government or its authorised body shall select and allot students to any unaided institution that voluntarily agrees in writing for seat sharing with the Government."

How many among the top 100 colleges in the State would voluntarily surrender their seats remains to be seen.

According to the Supreme Court guidelines in force now, CET is mandatory for filling management quota seats and admissions done on merit basis through a single window system. The Council of Architecture too says a common aptitude test in architecture is a must to recognise the admission of a student to B.Arch courses.

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