CUET, academic autonomy goes for a toss

 

CUET, academic autonomy goes for a toss

The academicians are yet to realise how the University Grants commission (UGC), that is supposed to look into the” coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India”, of late, has been centralizing all decision making in the filed of higher education, having far reaching national consequences. The UGC recently announced the introduction of a Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for all 45 central universities from the academic year 2022-23 that would determine the admission to all undergraduate courses, based on the performance at the CUET. 

The schools are just opening after two years of closure due to the Covid pandemic. The students have suffered enormously during the pandemic. There is a huge loss of learning. The students attending offline classes, after a two years gap, are struggling with a range of issues, including problem of reading and writing, among other gaps in learning. What is important is to bridge the gap in all respects- emotional, social and academic-by compensating for lost learning, among others. The students are already overburdened with the tests like NEET, JEE, CAT etc. And now asking them to take the CUET, will only increase their stress levels. Instead of reducing the burden of students taking multiple entrance tests, this will add to their burden.    

The idea of the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) is not new. It was mooted in 2013, but kept in cold storage because of important issues that cropped up: (a) the danger of each university losing its autonomy and the unique character for which it was established;(b) loss of the traditional catchment grounds of students; and (c) the sheer magnitude of the exercise in terms of all the universities seeking the approval of their statutory bodies and authorities in a time-bound manner. The UGC’s suggestion that the Sates should adapt CUET scoring for admission to undergraduate courses in their universities defies the very nature of these universities, besides encroaching on their academic autonomy.

 

The CUET will be based on the XII NCERT syllabus. This would mean advantage to the English medium students of CBSE, putting the students of state boards, studying in  vernacular medium, to disadvantage. These state boards' students, will not be able to crack the CUET unless they learn the syllabus of NCERT first through coaching classes (even if some of them could afford), apart from  the difficulty in getting the coaching in regional languages, besides mastering the nitty-gritty of the CUET. And permitting them to write the Test in regional languages per se, other than English, will not  make difference to their competitive level. That the school system of education and the Board examinations will lose importance, with the students concentrating on the CUET, since the performance at XII Board exams do not matter, is another serious issue.

The centrally funded technical educational institutions, central universities and deemed universities, put together, account for a mere 5% enrolment in higher education; the rest whopping 95% enrolment is in self-financed State private and public funded State universities, and their colleges.

 

As it is well documented, a vast majority of students cracking the NEET, JEE come from the privileged background and heavily depend on coaching classes. The CUET will go the NEET way, benefiting the urban-rich children, putting the children form rural-poor families to disadvantage, as they latter can’t afford the coaching classes, thus making the very process of competition unequal.

Besides, most of the students from state boards hail from the marginalised sections. As such, NCERT syllabus based entrance examination would place this deserving majority in a disadvantageous position in securing admission in central universities. The CUET will sideline the diverse school education system across the country, grossly undermining the relevance of overall development-oriented long-term learning in schools, making students rely on caching classes to improve their entrance examination scores, resulting in mushrooming of coaching  centres, fleecing the students.

 

The linguistic and cultural diversity of the Indian nation and the autonomy of universities should be respected.  It is an erroneous assumption that one common central entrance test for admission to undergraduate courses is a panacea for multiple tests and arbitrary assessment and marking system in state boards examinations.  There is no objective study to prove that the common tests like NEET, NEE, CAT etc. are good for the institutions and for the students. They are lucrative for the burgeoning academies and coaching centres that pushed the limits of competition to unhealthy and cruel levels wherein the student is either a victim or victor.

 

The policy decision to conduct CEUT for central universities is unilateral and arbitrary, taken without discussions, deliberations and consultations with the stake holders- the heads of institutions, the faculty, the students and the like. The myriad implications of the decision are not discussed in Academic Councils or passed through any of the established channels of thought and moderation within the universities. The administrative convenience has triumphed over academics.  

 

What is not acknowledged is that world-class universities and the countries in which they are situated do not insist on admitting students singularly on the quantitative score of a common test. They respect the idea of academic autonomy, grant their faculty the freedom to evolve holistic criteria for admission. Academic autonomy has gone for a toss.  The need of the hour is uplifting the school system of education across the states and ensuring quality education to all sections of students- a prerequisite to equitable quality higher education