Entrance exams sought for degree admission in state

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala state committee of the All India Private Schools and Children Welfare Association (PSACWA) has demanded that a common entrance examination be conducted for degree admissions in colleges under the universities in Kerala.
The current practice of giving admission on the basis of Plus Two marks was a blatant violation of the provisions in the Right to Education Act, which insists parity to all the students from different syllabuses and streams, the association said.
“However, in Kerala, students studying in CBSE and ICSE schools face gross discrimination when they seek admission to degree courses in colleges. The marks of these students are subjected to some equalisation process to equate them with that of the state syllabus students. Due to this equalisation process, the claim of CBSE/ICSE students to degree seats in government and aided colleges in the state becomes highly remote,” the association said.
“It’s high time the state government take immediate steps to put an end to this unscientific equalisation process and conduct a common entrance examination for admission to all degree courses and thus end the discrimination against CBSE/ICSE students,” the association state president Anu Chacko and state general secretary M Abdul Nazar said in a statement here on Friday. If the discrimination continues, the association would be forced to move court, they said.
The association also welcomed the single bench verdict of the Kerala High Court that quashed the grace marks being awarded to students in the state higher secondary stream. The association added that it would submit a memorandum to the state higher education minister demanding parity for all students in the admission process.