Road to college just got trickier than ever

NEW DELHI: The Union education ministry and University Grants Commission are going to revive the discussion on the Central University Common Entrance Test (CUCET) next week.
After both CBSE and CISCE cancelled the Class XII board exams in June, a majority of the states have followed suit, giving rise to concerns over evaluation and admission to undergraduate courses in colleges.
While central universities are keeping their options open for conducting the 2021-22 admissions, Rajeev Gupta, dean of admissions at Delhi University, said, “The assessment policy will not affect our admissions because it seems that the Class XII results will be determined in percentage and we use percentages for deciding the admission cutoffs.” Ramanujan College principal S P Aggarwal reiterated, “The new assessment formula will not have much of an effect on DU’s admissions.”
DU’s dean of admissions, however, wasn’t sure of CUCET. Gupta said, “Until the education ministry declares the exam, we cannot say anything.” Meanwhile, a UGC source confided, “Whether CUCET is implemented from the 2021-22 academic session, as intended earlier, will depend on the inputs from the central universities and the education ministry.”
But for the moment, there is concern over possible disparities in how the Class XII performance of students will be evaluated in the absence of exams. According to a government official, “The Class XII exams were cancelled due to the situation created by the Covid pandemic. However, that raises questions about the disparity in Class XII results because they will be based on assessments at the school level. The education ministry is going to take up the matter with the UGC and with the vice-chancellors of central universities soon. UGC itself is also internally discussing the matter.”
Educationist Meeta Sengupta suggested, “Universities should not wholly depend on school marks for admission. A test or viva could be included. For this year, colleges can also give only online admissions, to be converted to full admissions after a test when conditions improve and regular classes start or subject to students clearing their first semester.”
CUCET, once cleared, will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which also conducts competitive exams such as the engineering entrance JEE (Main) and medical entrance NEET-UG and several other admission tests for universities. According to an NTA official, work on the university entrance test had begun before the Covid lockdown and directives from the ministry are awaited. As for the feasibility of conducting the test for this year’s admissions, the official said, “It will take at least two months to prepare. That and the fact that two exams, JEE (Main) and NEET-UG, are pending have to be taken into account while planning CUCET.”