CHENNAI: The verdict of the First Bench of the Madras High Court on the Common Entrance Test law of the State Government was on expected lines.

Students and parents of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) stream are obviously happy at the ruling, though there are lurking fears that the State Government will go on appeal to the Supreme Court. The State Board students, who imagined that they need not take a Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examinations (TNPCEE), may have to prepare for the CET.

Legal sources said that since the final signed order of the Bench was still not ready, the State Government would have to wait for a certified copy, at least still Thursday, to bring up the issue before the apex court. Only then will it be known whether the whole controversy over this year's TNPCEE will end at least now. Any appeal at this stage will only further delay the process of finalising the TNPCEE and setting the process in motion. The State Government will have to formally inform Anna University (or any other agency) to launch arrangements for the conduct of the TNPCEE.

Anna University sources said that it would require at least six weeks from the day the university was formally informed about the conduct of the TNPCEE, to hold the CET. If it were only for the CBSE students, the numbers would have been limited to around 6,000 students. But in case it was open to all students, the numbers could go up to 1.6 lakh. Only when the Government specified the contours of the examination could the university authorities finalise the arrangements, the sources noted.

College managements and academics consider the TNPCEE a benchmark and said such a CET could be taken as the basis for admission to all professional colleges in the State, without private colleges' associations or a consortium having to conduct another test. "The TNPCEE and Anna University's admission process through the Single Window System has stood the test of time and lends credibility and transparency to the whole exercise. We see no reason to tamper with it," says a Chairman of a group of institutions in the western region of the State.

Chairpersons and principals of some engineering colleges in and around Chennai also favoured the TNPCEE and said the ranking system that been put in place had been "very useful and effective" in the admissions process. Unless the countdown started now, the academic year would be pushed to September, they feared.

Analyst Jayaprakash Gandhi noted that the urban-rural divide that the State Government sought to address by abolishing the CET ran deeper. Even going by the Plus Two marks, students from the rural areas and "educationally backward districts" could not match their counterparts from the urban and semi-urban centres. Taking the case of the medical stream, he said 1,370 students secured 199 out of 200 in 2005. Among them were 377 students who had got it through "improvement." The remaining 993 were the regular students. A study of these students showed that none of them came from eight of the `education districts' considered backward, such as Gudalur, Aranthangi, Ariyalur, Musiri, Lalgudi and Karaikal (Pondicherry.) In another 17 educational districts in rural areas, only 15 students figured in that list. About 900 of these students came from 32 education districts in urban and semi-urban areas. "This only shows that even if admissions are only by Plus Two marks, the objective of favouring the rural students cannot be achieved," Mr. Gandhi said.

If the State Government gives the go-ahead now, Anna University may be able to hold the TNPCEE at least on April 22 and 23, without clashing with other entrance tests. Students would get some to time to prepare and the test would be held well before the Assembly elections.

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