The Hindu : Front Page : Students raise key issues at fair

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 29, 2005

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Front Page

Students raise key issues at fair

V. Jayanth

The anxious students waiting for admission are concerned about the ``improvement mark'' issue

Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

CAREER GUIDANCE: Students at The Hindu Education Fair 2005 in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: At The Hindu Education Plus Fair 2005 taking place at the Madras University Centenary Auditorium, a cross-section of students, which has just passed Plus-Two, or will be taking their examinations next year, is raising some critical issues that call for answers from the Government.

The anxious students, waiting to join engineering and medical colleges are concerned about the `Improvement mark' issue and consequent denial of admission to "freshers." They wanted to know whether the Government would continue the scheme next year as the Plus-Two syllabus was already changed. All the students were frustrated at having to take numerous entrance tests in April-May.

Most deemed universities had their own tests, there was the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination, a common entrance test by a consortium of colleges and a couple of more applications from associations of self-financing colleges. The students demanded that all admissions be based on a single entrance test, followed by counselling sessions for government and management quota seats.

Another question the students raised at the pre-counselling guidance sessions as well at the Education Fair related to the competition between the State Board and the CBSE.

"We see students with four centums from the State Board, but the highest aggregate in the CBSE is around 95 per cent. How can we secure admission to the best engineering colleges or even hope for a medical seat?" asked a girl from the CBSE stream. Students and parents were equally worried about the fee structure in private colleges.

Despite the Raman Committee prescriptions, many colleges were charging from Rs. 50,000 to about 1 lakh a year, putting it out of reach of the poor. The less said about private medical colleges the better, they lamented.

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