ENTRANCE TESTS ABOLISHED IN TN

It’ll Benefit Only Private Managements: SFI

THE Tamilnadu state government has taken a decision to scrap the entrance examinations to the engineering and medical courses in the state. To the central executive committee of the Students Federation of India (SFI), that this decision has been taken to benefit the managements of private unaided colleges that are running these professional courses.

The central executive committee of the SFI expressed this opinion through a statement issued from New Delhi on June 7.

One will note that the state government has been arguing that this decision would benefit the rural students in the state. But an entrance test is intended to rationalise the various evaluation systems that are present in our country at the plus 2 level, like the respective state boards, CBSE etc, and thus put all the students on par for admission to a professional course. Therefore, to the SFI, doing away with the entrance examination system will be giving unequal advantage to a section of the students. Moreover, a decision like this --- to hold an entrance examination or to do away with it --- should be taken while keeping in mind the interests of the students and the entire academic community and not those of the private managements. It should be academics that should form the basis for such a decision and not market or its logic of profit.

The SFI’s belief is that entrance examinations are used more as a means to eliminate students from accessing the minimum facilities available in higher education. But this should not lead us to the conclusion that these tests are the reason for many seats remaining vacant in professional courses in many states. The state government has issued no objection certificates (NOCs) to the all and sundry without taking into consideration the needs of the society or caring for the future of students. Profit motive was accorded priority over the concerns of the society and this situation is being utilised by the private institutes to further their interests. The chief reason for the vacant seats is the exorbitant fee, whereby a situation has developed where thousands of students aspiring for higher education are denied of it and at the same time many seats are found lying vacant. This problem cannot be solved by doing away with entrance examinations but only by reducing the fee and making higher education accessible to all those in need of it. Only this step will really benefit the rural students, and not the doing away of the entrance examination.

The SFI has for long been demanding an immediate evaluation of the various entrance examinations that are held across the country. It has now reiterated its demand that these tests should be conducted to test the skills and aptitude of the concerned students and not just to test the power of memory. The SFI had noted with a sense of sadness that, instead of undertaking such an exercise and initiating measures to conduct these examinations in a scientific manner, state governments are intent on doing away with the examination altogether. (INN)