Hindu editorial #4

 

A no win situation: On Jee-Neet during the pandemic

 

A pandemic and the resultant delay in commencing admission to professional courses have put the Union Education Ministry in an unenviable (hard to deal with) position. It is under compulsion to strike a balance between ensuring physical and emotional well-being of aspirants and sustaining a merit-based admission process, while seeking to limit the academic disruption (act of delaying or interrupting the continuity). The NEET is the only gateway for MBBS/BDS admissions in the country. In respect of engineering admissions, the JEE is not mandatory for State government-run and private institutions. Citing (make reference to) the Supreme Court’s recent order declining to interfere with the conduct of the two common entrance tests, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has contended that the issue is being politicised. His argument is that a “silent majority” favours the exams as an overwhelming number of registered candidates have downloaded their admit cards. From an academic perspective, the Supreme Court has rightly observed that the career of students “cannot be put in peril for long”. Mr. Pokhriyal is apprehensive that further delay could lead to a “zero academic year”, a concern shared by many academics.

 

Ground realities reflect the concerns from the other side. More than the fear of contracting COVID-19 from examination centres, aspirants face practical limitations. The NEET will be conducted in 3,843 centres across 155 cities, whereas the number of applicants is about 15.97 lakh. For an estimated 8.58 lakh aspirants, the JEE will be held in 660 centres in 12 shifts. With many States not resuming public transport services and hotels remaining closed, travel and accommodation for candidates from interior regions is a major challenge. Social and cultural pressures are such that girls from villages and tier-3 towns are likely to face hurdles as travelling alone would not be encouraged under these unusual circumstances. Even if hotels are opened at short notice, the fear of the pandemic might deter a section of aspirants from staying there. Delay in admission to the IITs and medical colleges would also have an adverse bearing on BE/BTech seats in leading institutions including deemed universities as eventually they may go vacant when students opt out. Given this background, the government must explore alternatives such as allowing States to conduct medical admissions based on Class XII Board marks using standard normalisation. NEET could be limited to central institutions. Likewise, instead of the JEE, a nationwide marks normalisation could be examined but IIT Directors have argued that doing away with JEE would dilute (lessen) the quality of education. Extraordinary circumstances may require extraordinary solutions. Perhaps the examination slots could be staggered (arranged) and the number of centres increased drastically. Pragmatic (practical) compromises are inevitable (unavoidable).

 

 

Explanation:

 

The pandemic delayed many entrance examinations and the decision making becomes hard for the education ministry. There are many issues undergoing, they have to see the physical and mental well beings of the candidates as well as they have to select the students in merit basis without any delay. As we know that NEET is a only gateway to opt for medicine, there is a compulsion that the exams must be held. And JEE is not mandatory for State run or private institutions. The supreme court openly stated that it won’t interfere in this matter and the central government should take decision regarding this. Our education minister Mr. Ramesh Pokriyal Nishank said that the issue of conducting examination is being politicised. And he added that many students are willing to write the examination as many of the candidates downloaded their admit cards. The supreme court viewed the academic side of the student and told that the career of the students can’t be put into hold for so long. Mr. Pokriyal pointed that further delay in conducting the examination may lead to ‘zero academic year’ as suggested by many officials.

 

But the practical reality seems to be more complicated, the practical concerns is to be considered more than the pandemic i.e.., the student has to travel to their respective exam centres from one city to another, as there is no active public transportation across states and cities. Students from the rural areas especially girls will face more challenges in attending the exams, as they can’t travel alone in this unusual situation. Even if the public transport is operated for a short period of time, the spread of the virus may increase rapidly in this gathering. Delaying of IITs and Medical admission lead to fall in the admission in the engineering colleges after they got medical seats attending the NEET examination. After hearing all these hurdles, the central government should allow the state government to select candidates in the basis of class12th marks. The seats which are allotted for the NEET can be minimized for this academic year. If we do same for the IITs admission, the director of IIT fears that this may dilute the merit basis admission and crash the quality of education. As seeing all these issue the author concludes by saying, if they decide to conduct the examination the central government should arrange more exam centres, but the practical limitations for the candidate is unavoidable.

 

 

Today’s synonyms

1.   Disruption - act of delaying or interrupting the continuity

2.   Citing - make reference to

3.   dilute - lessen

4.   staggered - arranged

5.   Pragmatic - practical

6.   inevitable – unavoidable

 

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