A no-win situation
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Context:
- A pandemic and the resultant delay in commencing admission to professional courses have put the Union Education Ministry in an unenviable position.
- It is under compulsion to strike a balance between ensuring physical and emotional well-being of aspirants and sustaining a merit-based admission process, while seeking to limit the academic disruption.
NEET & JEE
- The NEET is the only gateway for MBBS/BDS admissions in the country.
- In respect of engineering admissions, the JEE is not mandatory for State government-run and private institutions.
SC Judgement:
- Citing the Supreme Court’s recent order declining to interfere with the conduct of the two common entrance tests, Education Minister has contended that the issue is being politicised.
- His argument is that a “silent majority” favours the exams as an overwhelming number of registered candidates have downloaded their admit cards.
- From an academic perspective, the Supreme Court has rightly observed that the career of students “cannot be put in peril for long”.
- Pokhriyal is apprehensive that further delay could lead to a “zero academic year”, a concern shared by many academics.
LIMITATIONS:
- Ground realities reflect the concerns from the other side. More than the fear of contracting COVID-19 from examination centres, aspirants face practical limitations.
- The NEET will be conducted in 3,843 centres across 155 cities, whereas the number of applicants is about 15.97 lakh.
- For an estimated 8.58 lakh aspirants, the JEE will be held in 660 centres in 12 shifts.
- With many States not resuming public transport services and hotels remaining closed, travel and accommodation for candidates from interior regions is a major challenge.
- Social and cultural pressures are such that girls from villages and tier-3 towns are likely to face hurdles as travelling alone would not be encouraged under these unusual circumstances.
- Even if hotels are opened at short notice, the fear of the pandemic might deter a section of aspirants from staying there.
- Delay in admission to the IITs and medical colleges would also have an adverse bearing on BE/BTech seats in leading institutions including deemed universities as eventually they may go vacant when students opt out.
- Given this background, the government must explore alternatives such as allowing States to conduct medical admissions based on Class XII Board marks using standard normalisation.
- NEET could be limited to central institutions. Likewise, instead of the JEE, a nationwide marks normalisation could be examined but IIT Directors have argued that doing away with JEE would dilute the quality of education.
CONCLUSION:
- Extraordinary circumstances may require extraordinary solutions.
- Perhaps the examination slots could be staggered and the number of centres increased drastically. Pragmatic compromises are inevitable.
- Conducting JEE and NEET amid a pandemic is not easy, but options are limited.