Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Move to overhaul admission system

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Government proposes to overhaul the present system of admission to professional courses scientifically, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Vijayakumar told the Assembly on Tuesday.

Responding to a calling attention motion by A.P. Anil Kumar (Congress), the Minister said the Government had already constituted a committee headed by the Higher Education Secretary to go into the issue. The Government would initiate action in the matter on receipt of the committee's report, he added.

Mr. Vijayakumar pointed out that the State had gone in for the single window admission system following detection of serious irregularities in the qualifying examinations way back in 1980 and the growing popularity of courses conducted by different boards which gave marks to their students based on divergent criteria.

Till 1999, the State had a common entrance test for both medicine and engineering courses. Beginning 2000, the State had been having separate examinations for the two courses.

He said the Government was aware of the difficulties arising from the present entrance examination system and the pro-rich bias that it had brought about in the professional education system.

However, it was not in a position to scrap the system altogether, as both the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Medical Council of India (MCI) had made it mandatory for all the States to conduct entrance examinations for admissions to medicine and engineering courses.

The Supreme Court too had taken the same position in its judgment in the Inamdar Case.

The Government had constituted the expert committee to see how best the shortcomings in the present admission system could be addressed and rectified, Mr. Vijayakumar said.

`Favouring rich'

Mr. Anil Kumar pointed out that the present system of admission was weighted in favour of the rich who alone could afford entrance coaching.

Children from poor families, especially from among the Adivasis, were faring badly because of this, he said.

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