Repairing CUET collateral damage

Mandated without adequate debate and preparation in the trademark style of the BJP/NDA government, the inaugural Common University Entrance Test (CUET) 2022 — promulgated as the sole exam for admission into undergraduate programmes of the country’s 45 Central universities — has made a disastrous debut, writes Summiya Yasmeen

Mandated without adequate debate and preparation in the trademark style of the BJP/NDA government now mid-way through its second term in office at the Centre, the inaugural Common University Entrance Test (CUET) 2022 — promulgated on March 21 as the sole pan-India exam for admission into undergraduate programmes of the country’s 45 Central universities — has made a disastrous debut.
The first phase of the exam held on July 15-20 in 554 cities countrywide was marked by chaos and confusion. The initial batch of 800,000 class XII students who wrote the new common exam for entry into top-ranked, low fees universities established and managed by the Central government, experienced high stress and anxiety. Delay in issuance of admit cards and last minute switches of exam centres resulted in thousands of students reporting at wrong centres where they were not admitted. Angry students and parents staged protests outside several exam centres in Delhi NCR, accusing the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts CUET, of mismanagement and bungling.

It’s important to note that although mishandling of the inaugural CUET has made headline news, this common entrance test is for admission into 45 Central government varsities that constitute a small fraction (4.2 percent) of the country’s 1,055 universities. The remainder are relatively pricey private (39.7 percent) and low-ranked state government varsities. Therefore, well-funded Central government higher education institutions with superior infrastructure, high-quality faculty, well-maintained campuses and rock-bottom tuition and residence fees are the first choice of every higher-secondary student who has swotted for class XII school-leaving exams. And of the 45 Central universities, the most prized is Delhi University, particularly its routinely top-ranked undergrad colleges — St. Stephen’s, Miranda House, Sri Ram College of Commerce, among others.

The intentions and objectives behind introduction of CUET are noble. It is the response of the University Grants Commission (UGC) — the apex level body which supervises and administers higher education countrywide — to the stress experienced by class XII students hitherto obliged to write multiple entrance exams, and popular colleges notifying sky-high cut-off percentages for admission into some study programmes. “In National Education Policy 2020, it is advocated that we should remove the multiplicity of entrance tests and have one single test so that students do not have to go through the difficulties of writing multiple entrance tests… with CUET, students can now write one single entrance test,” says Prof. Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, a former professor at IIT-Delhi, vice chancellor of the top-ranked Jawaharlal Nehru University and incumbent chairperson of UGC. “Use of one entrance test for admissions in undergrad programmes has become a global phenomenon,” he adds.

Given the relatively high-quality education provided by well-funded Central government universities at ridiculously low price, no sooner was CUET promulgated, it became the country’s second-largest public exam with 1.49 million students registering for admission into undergrad programmes of 90 universities (UGC regulations permit private and state government universities to admit students on the basis of any national public exam scores). Therefore 12 state, 11 deemed and 19 private universities have opted to admit students on the basis of CUET scores and/or accord weightage to the new common entrance exam.

In this connection, it is pertinent to highlight that a common entrance exam for admission into undergrad — and often postgrad — education institutions is indeed a “global phenomenon”. In the US, most undergrad college admissions are on the basis of SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) score and in China scores in the dreaded gaokao determine admission into top-ranked and lesser ranked universities. In the UK, from which independent India inherited its education system, board exam grades and other performance indicators prescribed by UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admission Service) continue to determine undergrad college/university admission. The switch to CUET signals a departure from the British to the American admission process.

But although CUET admittedly eliminates the physical and mental stress of students having to write multiple university entrance tests, and streamlines the admission application and selection process, its hurried introduction without vigorous debate and ground preparation has opened up a pandora’s box of troubles.

“The hasty imposition of CUET upon students who haven’t yet recovered from the prolonged Covid lockdown shows that government has least empathy for children. Its announcement at the fag end of the academic year (2021-22) as they were preparing to write class XII board exams, added the burden of preparing for CUET at short notice. Now several lapses in conduct of the test have exposed that NTA was also unprepared to stage this massive pan-India exam. Unfortunately, a test which was supposed to alleviate student stress and anxiety has done the opposite,” says Sudha Acharya, chairperson of the Delhi-based National Progressive Schools’ Conference (NPSC) which has a membership of 400 private CBSE schools. According to Acharya, the hurried introduction of CUET without debate and deliberation with experienced educationists and educators, has dealt a body blow to the formal K-12 school system and will prove a bonanza for drill-and-skill coaching schools that prepare students for public exams. In particular, binning class XII board exam marks means that henceforth for admission into Central universities, high scores in the board exams have become irrelevant.

“By not according any weightage to the class XII board exam scores, CUET has severely devalued the high school education system. With CUET scores being the be all and end all for college admissions, higher secondary students may well abandon schools and flock to coaching centres to prep for CUET. Therefore to maintain the relevance of senior secondary education, NPSC recommends that NTA awards 50 percent weightage to class XII board exam scores when calculating CUET rank,” says Acharya, also principal of the CBSE-affiliated ITL Public School, Dwarka, Delhi.

Although the hasty introduction of CUET has endangered the formal higher-secondary school system, the multiplicity of India’s 35 school examination boards with differing syllabuses and assessment criteria necessitated a common entrance exam for undergrad admissions. Over the past decade in particular, there’s been mounting criticism of several state exam boards that prescribe less rigorous syllabuses than the pan-India CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) and CISCE (Council for Indian School Certificate Examination). Moreover, they are known to be too liberal in awarding marks/scores resulting in runaway grades inflation countrywide.

With millions of school-leavers averaging 95 percent-plus, students of several state boards such as UP and Bihar, notorious for exam malpractices, were widely perceived to be getting unfair advantage in undergraduate admissions. With all exam boards joining the grades inflation party, the country’s 39,931 undergraduate colleges — which are obliged to give equal weightage to certification of all examination boards — and in particular top-ranked colleges of Delhi University began specifying incrementally higher percentages as admission cut-offs. To the extent that some colleges such as the Shri Ram College of Commerce and Miranda House stipulated 100 percent cut-offs for specific study programmes.

“CUET levels the playing field for students across the country. Previously, because of wide divergence in marking practices of state examination boards, their students received unwarranted high scores giving them advantage in college admissions. Now all class XII students will write one common entrance examination. CUET will also put an end to the practice of top ranked colleges stipulating absurdly high admission cut-offs. That’s why in its very first year, not only all Central universities but also many state and private varsities have agreed to accept CUET scores for admission into their undergrad programmes,” says Prof. Geeta Bhatt, director of the Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board, Delhi University.