Page 74 - EducationWorld August 2022

Special Report

CUET r e f o r m r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s

he out-of-the-blue imposition on March 21 of the Common University Entrance
TTest (CUET) as the sole, compulsory entrance examination for admission into
45 Central government universities (and affiliated colleges) has generated heated
debates. The consensus of academy opinion is that CUET has devalued higher-
secondary school education; given a fillip to private test prep coaching enterprises
and discriminates against state government and budget private schools.
EducationWorld spoke to a cross-section of school principals, educationists and
researchers in think tanks on ways and means to transform CUET into an inclusive
and egalitarian entrance exam providing a level playing field for all higher secondary
school-leavers countrywide.
Major recommendations:
• NTA (National Testing Agency)/ universities should accord 15-50 percent weight-
age to class XII board exam scores to final CUET score
• Standardise evaluation processes of the country’s 35 school exam boards
• Debate exam reforms to check grades inflation and ensure assessment of con-
ceptual grasp rather than rote learning Gupta: capacity expansion solution
• Align senior secondary school syllabuses with CUET
• Homogenise syllabi of the country’s 32 state boards to bring them on a par with immediate measures that need to be
the NCERT syllabus taken to address charges that CUET
• Launch investigation into ‘dummy’ schools and disaffiliate them is an exclusionary exam biased in fa-
• Allow universities including Central varsities and their affiliated colleges some vour of CBSE students, the long term
latitude to admit students on criteria beyond CUET scores, e.g, personal interview solution is to multiply the number of
• Until CUET syllabus is fully integrated with class XI-XII syllabi, consider awarding quality higher education institutions
deprivation points to government/rural school students in CUET/undergrad admis- in the country. In its very first year,
sion processes of public-funded universities CUET has been written by 1.49 million
• Initiate discussions in public forums, with school principals and educationists to students rushing to enter 45 Central
integrate CUET with the senior secondary education system universities, especially Delhi Uni-
versity’s reputed undergrad colleges
because they provide high quality
the ugly reality of the well-entrenched able educationists recommend inte- education. Unless a concerted effort is
test prep coaching industry, and has gration and aligning of school cur- made to upgrade the country’s other
failed to take the wide disparity in syl- riculums with the CUET syllabus to 1,000 universities, entrance exams
labuses and curriculums of 32 state reduce private coaching dependence. such as CUET, IIT-JEE, NEET will
exam boards into account. Third, the Council of Boards of School remain elimination rather than selec-
A LTHOUGH CUET HAS be- ernment of India body now in slumber alum of IIT-Delhi and Johns Hopkins
Education (COBSE, estb.1989), a gov-
D
tion tests,” says r. P aru l G u p t a, an
come a reality and 1.49
mode, needs to be aroused and tasked
University, USA, former economics
million
school-leaving
Delhi, and currently research consul-
children have written to homogenise the syllabuses of the professor at Lady Shri Ram College,
country’s 35 school exam boards and
the inaugural common entrance test align them with NCERT’s National tant at Sattva Consulting, Delhi.
that will determine admission into Curriculum Framework. Moreover, Indisputably the larger national
45 much prized Central universities the Central government needs to lib- interest demands a common entrance
in August/September, it needs to be eralise and deregulate higher educa- exam for school leavers to ensure that
corrected. Quite clearly some weight- tion to increase the number of quality the brightest and best have first pref-
age needs to be accorded to the class higher ed institutes to match steadily erence to enter undergrad colleges of
XII board exam scores. For several rising demand for tertiary and post- their choice. Even though CUET is a
years, state governments of Karna- grad education. fait ac c omp li, its rules, regulations
taka (50 percent) and Maharashtra “While aligning senior school cur- and mandate have to be tweaked to
(60 percent) have been according riculums with CUET, bringing state repair the collateral damage that its
weightage to class XII marks to Com- boards on a par with the NCERT syl- peremptory introduction has caused.
mon Entrance Tests (CETs) scores for labus, and redesigning this common
admission into engineering undergrad entrance test to reduce dependence With inputs from Autar Nehru (Delhi) &
programmes. Secondly, knowledge- on coaching institutes are some of the Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)

74 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2022