The Hindu : Front Page : EAMCET: Inter 1st year students may be barred

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Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008
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EAMCET: Inter 1st year students may be barred

R. Ravikanth Reddy

The idea comes in the wake of confusion created over ranks this year
More details of students should be taken, says EAMCET Convenor

HYDERABAD: First year students may not be allowed to write the EAMCET from next year with the officials planning to submit to the government a plea that only second year students and those who have completed Intermediate course be made eligible.

The idea comes in the wake of confusion created over the ranks secured by students in the EAMCET this year as none was sure of where they would stand in the counselling. The confusion was created with the increase in number of candidates by over 90,000 in the engineering stream. Last year 1,87,213 candidates registered for the engineering stream while the number rose to 2,70,667 in 2008. Such an increase is ‘abnormal’ and it was felt that majority of additional numbers were Intermediate first year students who wanted to test the waters.

Interestingly, 2,51,737 of the registered candidates cleared the EAMCET and many of them apparently got decent ranks under the top one lakh.

This situation created huge confusion among the rankers seeking engineering admissions as their plans to arrive at a college and course based on previous year’s seat matrix failed. Rather, it became irrelevant as none of them knew how many first year candidates were before them. “The abnormally high number baffled us too,” admitted EAMCET-2008 Convenor E. Saibaba Reddy adding that generally there is around 10 per cent increase.

In the first phase of counselling this year, there were more than 6,000 absentees among the 54,000 rankers called.

The number of absentees is considered high given the fact that only the top 1,000 rankers ignore State engineering colleges for better institutes like IITs, NITs or BITS. There is a likelihood of several first year students figuring among ranks above one lakh.

Logistics

“We will suggest to the government that more details of students be taken in the EAMCET application to avoid such applicants,” said the EAMCET Convenor, for whom it is mandatory to submit a report with suggestions for improvement.

Though the government gets additional money from the applicants, the Convenor has to face problems with regard to logistics.

Creating additional centres and facilities for such a huge number is always a problem. More so, as the EAMCET stirs emotions more than testing the intelligence of students. This year 60,000 people were involved in the conduct of the test.

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