The Union human resource development ministry, already confronted with the prospect of a faculty revolt over the issue of introducing the semester system in Delhi University, is bracing for another storm over a unified admissions process for admitting students into undergrad and postgrad programmes of 39 Central government universities countrywide directly administered by it. The unified admissions process prescribes a com-mon national aptitude test with some weightage given to marks obtained in the class XII school-leaving examination.
The unified admissions process proposed to be introduced next year, has raised questions relating to the autonomy of universities. At a September 30 conference of vice chancellors of Central universities held in New Delhi, participants agreed in principle to this proposal even though privately they resent centralisation of admissions which will eliminate their discretionary powers. “It’s one thing for us to nod our heads and agree in a closed-door conference and another to persuade our faculties to accept the plan,” an unidentified vice chancellor told the Hindustan Times (September 29).
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However, most educationists feel this proposal is student-friendly as it will relieve them from writing several varsity entrance exams. “Testing students’ aptitude for higher education through an IIT-JEE or CAT-style common national test with some weightage to class XII results is a very rational way to govern admis-sions to Central universities. It’s good for all stakeholders including faculty and students,” says M.I. Hussain, principal of Delhi Public School, Mathura Road.
“The proposed common aptitude exam will not test subject knowledge but general awareness and critical thinking of school-leaving students,” Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal informed the vice chancellors’ conference, adding that the final scheme will be ready by December.
Amit Bhatia, CEO of Aspire Human Capital Management Pvt. Ltd, a Delhi-based training corporate championing aptitude and skills embedded know-ledge, believes that the common aptitude test is an excellent idea. “Classroom teaching has traditionally focused only on textbook knowledge ignoring aptitude — logical, abstract, verbal or numeric — and skills assessment. This has made our huge pool of engineering and other graduates unemployable even as the number of job vacancies within the Indian economy is rising sharply. We’ll have to catch up fast and put emphasis on a new learning system. To that extent, the unified admissions test proposal of the HRD ministry is welcome,” says Bhatia.
Another major decision which emerged from the September 30 vice chancellors’ conference was a general agreement to launch new four-year integrated B.Sc-B.Ed (bachelor of science-bachelor of education) and BA-B.Ed (bachelor of arts-bachelor of education) degree programmes to address the country’s looming short-age of secondary school teachers estimated at 250,000. For mysterious reasons, vice chancellors seemed to resent this proposal as well. When contacted by your correspondent Prof. B.B. Bhattacharya, vice chancellor of JNU, Delhi, Prof. Sayed Hasnain of Hyderabad University and NCTE (National Council of Teacher Education) chairman M.A. Siddiqui declined to comment. However an eminent profes-sor of education, requesting anonymity, responded angrily saying: “The HRD ministry is thrusting things down our throats. What reaction can we give? The ministry should know the limitations of the system.”
Meanwhile, jostling among vice chancellors to acquire ‘navratna’(‘new jewels’) status for their institutions has also begun, as the criteria of selection has been reportedly finalised and is awaiting announcement by the ministry. Navratna universities, which could be named before April next year, will have greater autonomy and funding. But when the list of these 14 special status varsities is published, there’s likely to be more resentment among vice chancellors of universities denied navratna status.
Autar Nehru (Delhi)