Bill to scrap CET passed

Bill to scrap CET passed

Chennai: In a move that would provide greater relief to the student community in the State, particularly to those from rural areas, the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday passed the Bill to abolish Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to professional courses. Replying to a discussion on the Bill, Higher Education Minister K Ponmudi asserted that government was firm on abolishing CET from the next academic year by overcoming all legal hurdles.

He expressed confidence that the legislation would stand the test of law as its provisions were based on “nomination method” which was already appreciated by the Supreme Court. Under the normalization method the highest mark obtained the students of various boards in each subject would be equated to the highest mark obtained by the students of State Board in the subject and the relative marks obtained by other students in that subject would be determined accordingly.

For example, if the highest mark secured by a student of State Board in Physics is 100 and the highest mark secured by a student of any other board in the same subject is 90 both the highest marks will be considered to be equal to 100. If a student of the other board secures 60 marks in physics when the first mark in Physics in the same board is 90, then the 60 marks will be considered to be equal to 66.66 marks.

After normalization of marks in the relevant subject, the qualified student would be merged into a common merit list, the Bill said.

In cases, where more than student gets the same marks in the common merit list, the inter se merit among such students would be determined in such manner as may be prescribed. Any complaints on admission would be inquired by an appropriate authority. If the government is satisfied that any institution had violated any of the provisions of this Act, it would recommend to the university or statutory body concerned the withdrawal of affiliation or recognition of such institution or may initiate any other action. Whoever contravenes the provisions of this Act would be punished with a maximum fine of Rs.5 lakh.

Dispelling apprehensions raised by Gnanasekaran (Congress) and G K Mani (PMK) that the legislation might be challenged in the court as similar efforts were made on earlier occasions; Ponmudi said that the government had deliberated on these issues while preparing the Bill.

The normalization method, practiced by the BITS, Pilani, had seen appreciated by the SC. On a suggestion by a Cong member that entrance test to law courses should also be abolished, the Minister said scrapping of CET for professional courses was possible because the ‘core subjects’ were the same. But in the case of law, students who had studied different subjects can apply, to evolve a similar normalization method for law courses too.

Bill to scrap CET passed

Related Web Pages

Bill scrap CET Passed |  Common Entrance Test CET |  Birla Institute of Technology and Science BITS | 

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