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| JUET comes under scanner; will JU order probe? | | Weak students qualify entrance exam | | Paper setters resisting new pattern
Syed Junaid Hashmi
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 8: Jammu University (JU) has virtually put a question mark on the sacredness and credibility of the entrance test conducted annually for admitting students to various courses by expressing displeasure at the quality of the students who qualify this test.
If the language used in the agenda item which was discussed in the academic council meeting held on January 27 earlier this year is any indication, an in-depth probe is the only way out to find out how the students with poor knowledge of subject, intellect and ability passed this test and got admitted in various departments of the university. In the agenda item no. 10, university had proposed massive changes in the existing pattern of entrance examination, on the ground that the existing pattern was unable to deliver results on the expected lines.
Sources said that the item was discussed but due to disagreement among the members of the council, the item had to be deferred. They added that the proposal has now been sent to the Deans of all the schools in the University for opinion. Once their opinion is received, sources said that the item would be placed before the academic council of the university as and when it meets next. But the university faculty did apprise the council members about the students qualifying this entrance.
According to the agenda notes, a copy of which is with Early Times, the faculty members expressed concern over the deteriorating quality of the students finally admitted through JUET. They proposed that the present pattern of JUET needs to be extensively modified so that the candidates having aptitude to a particular course are admitted. By proposing that the candidates with aptitude for a particular course should be admitted, faculty has directly put a question mark on the capability of the students who qualified the JUET and are pursuing various courses in the university.
By making these derogatory remarks about the students admitted through JUET, sources said that university faculty has also put a question mark on the wisdom of the ex-VC Prof. Mohan Pal Singh Isher who had virtually handed the entire JUET to one man from the Information and Technology Department Dr. Guneet Sudan.
They added that the acting Vice-Chancellor Prof. R.D.Sharma should have handed over the records pertaining to entrance tests held earlier to some investigating agency to find out reasons for students with poor intellect qualifying the entrance examination.
Prior to revamping the entire entrance examination pattern, sources said that the acting VC should institute a probe committee to find out how in several cases, students with poor academic merit managed to get good marks in the entrance examination. They added that there is also a strong possibility of some paper setters leaking question paper to students appearing in the examination much before the entrance was scheduled to be held.
There were so many goof-ups both in the conduct of the examination and later on, when the papers were being checked. Sources said that the answer keys of several papers were revised countless times with the faculty members, raising one objection after the other. They added that the revisions of the answer keys were done without even notifying the students who had appeared for the entrance examination, something which is mandatory and which should have been done without making it a prestige issue.
In some exceptional cases, sources said that the faculty members would even search for answers of the question set by them on the internet websites. If these many goof-ups took place, sources maintained that Dr. Guneet Singh Sudan should have brought it in writing to the notice of the ex-VC which he did not. Instead, sources said that Sudan acted as de-facto controller examination, caring a little about the sacredness and credibility of the JUET.
Sources further said that JU should have hired an outside agency, got the paper setters from rest of the country and then, conducted JUET but they preferred internal mechanism, which now faulty members maintain is both flawed and fishy. According to the new scheme proposed to address these shortcomings, entrance test will have 180 multiple choice questions, each carrying one mark and will be of 2 and a half hour duration. For every wrong answer, 0.25 marks will be deducted.
It will be just to earn eligibility and once the student qualifies the entrance examination, admission to a particular course would be made on the basis of academic merit. Whether or not this new scheme is allowed to see light of the day, the fact remains that an in-depth inquiry into JUET is long overdue. |
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