The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Further delay likely in entrance test, admissions

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 09, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Further delay likely in entrance test, admissions

V. Jayanth

Suspense continues for students, parents With the Anna University wanting six clear weeks after the Government issues instructions on the CET, sources familiar with the process say the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examinations cannot be conducted before the third week of May.

CHENNAI: With the Supreme Court posting the State Government's appeal in the Common Entrance Test (CET) case for March 27, academics caution that a further delay seems inevitable in the conduct of the CET and the admission process. Considering that Tamil Nadu is bent on scrapping the CET for State Board students, and the counsel for those who petitioned the High Court think they have a clear order to site, there could be heated arguments all over again.

Academic sources here say that unless the State's special leave petition is dismissed, the hearing could spill over to a second day. With the Anna University wanting six clear weeks after the Government issues instructions on the CET, sources familiar with the process say the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examinations cannot be conducted before the third week of May. "They need two weeks from then to evaluate the papers. Then, there is the process of calling for applications, which normally requires a three-week span, followed by their ranking. That should take up to the middle of July. If that were the case, we do not expect counselling for admissions to begin before the end of July or early August. Giving a month for this exercise and perhaps a second round of counselling, colleges cannot begin the academic year for the freshers before early September. Fortunately, the first year is a non-semester pattern," explains a university source.

He considers May 20 and 21 as the "most possible dates" for the TNPCEE, as Tamil Nadu goes to the polls on May 8, with counting on May 11.

Confusion, crisis

Students, and more so their parents, are worried about the "suspense" over CET. C. Jayapalan, a Nanganallur resident, who is anxious about his son's admission to a "good engineering seat and college," wonders if the confusion in the admission process will extend to all institutions, including the Deemed Universities, and for the management quota in private self-financing colleges. "There is so much of confusion and crisis this year, even with regard to the Deemed Universities, that parents and students have reasons to be worried about the prospects. We wish the State Government withdraws the petition in the larger interests of students and to enable the conduct of the CET in April itself," he says.

But Government sources see no room for such a move. "We have a point and would like the Supreme Court to give its ruling on this vital issue. Once the apex court delivers its order, the Government will issue the necessary instructions to the agency in charge of conducting the CET. The rest of it will follow," according to a senior official.

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