Central University Entrance Test

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Context: Mandatory Common Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate programmes in all the 45 Central universities.

About Common Entrance Test

The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) is a computerized exam and will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
Admission to undergraduate courses in Central universities will be solely based on the CUET score, and Class 12 Board marks will not carry any weightage. This effectively means that performance in the Class 12 Board examination will no longer be a factor in admissions across Central universities.
The reservation policies and ordinances of the universities will remain unchanged.
CUET will carry multiple choice questions based on NCERT textbooks and students will be marked negatively for incorrect answers.
The CUET 2022 will be offered in 13 languages, namely Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu, Assamese, Bengali, Punjabi, Odia and English.
The exam will be conducted in two shifts.
- In the first shift, candidates will appear for Section I (languages), two chosen domain subjects and the general test.
- In the second shift, they will appear for the other four domain subjects and an additional language test, if opted for.
International students are exempted from CUET; their admissions will be carried out on the existing supernumerary basis.

Significance of the CUET

Ensure Equality of Opportunities - The Government did not favor using Board marks for admission because of the “diversity” in evaluation methods. “Some Boards are more generous than others in marking and this gives their students an unfair advantage over others.
Simple admission process - After the test, each university will admit students based on a merit list, and there will be no common counseling.
Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Indira Gandhi National Open University in the national capital, and Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University in UP, are among the well-known Central universities that will now be covered by CUET.
CUET will not affect the quota of reserved seats at institutions, but they will have to mandatorily admit all students through the common test. This would ensure quality education to talented students belonging to marginalized sections of the society.

Arguments in favor of CUET

Any experienced person will agree with the fact that a high score in board exams does not necessarily translate into knowledge. For the same reason, top Universities across the world prefer an entrance exam as the sole criteria or a mix of merit and entrance for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
If implemented properly, it has the potential to remove a vast majority of individual entrances by different Universities and may also be accepted by state Universities.
It will ensure a fair mechanism is given to them for college admissions.
Students aspire to take admission in universities like Delhi University, JNU, BHU, etc and get rejected because they have not scored enough in their board exams. CUET will be like a second chance to reach a decent college of their choice and uplift their confidence.

Arguments against CUET

It is believed that the economically and socially deprived students will be left behind and will not get more chances to get into top-tier universities. This is because they won’t be able to go to coaching centers to clear the exams in contrast to the upper or middle class students.
The best-coached students will have more chances than the deprived ones
In a country like India, people do not invest much in a girl child; therefore it could result in gender imbalance.
CUET cannot function in the current scenario of underfunding and lack of resources and comprehensive evaluations.
In a scenario where entrance exams take months to complete the admission process.
Professors of some of the top universities believe that the proposal to have a common entrance test is against the autonomy of universities.

WAY FORWARD

Modernizing academic Programs by introducing academic Subjects and teaching techniques aimed at improved employability.
Ensure adequate availability of properly qualified Staff, Improve management and financial Systems.
Collaboration with International development agencies, foundations, Private funders, NGOs, and So on.
Improving teaching and learning, improving the Selection of instructors, upgrading instructor knowledge through formal training and online Courses, Improving learning environments.
India’s educational Challenges Can only be addressed by efforts of engaged and capable teachers at educational institutions.