The Hindu : `Initiate debate on admissions'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 17, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

`Initiate debate on admissions'

By S. Rajendran

Bangalore May 16. The former minister and General Secretary of the All-India Janata Dal, M. Raghupathy, who, as Education Minister, introduced an entrance test for admissions to professional courses for the first time in the country in 1984, has said that the State Government should immediately summon a joint session of the State Legislature and initiate a debate on admissions to private professional colleges in the interests of students.

He told The Hindu here on Thursday that the Janata Party and Janata Dal governments had introduced the entrance test and the Common Entrance Test (CET) to enable meritorious and poor students, and those from rural areas to pursue courses in professional colleges. He said at a time when steps should be taken to strengthen the CET and regulate admissions to professional colleges, the Government remained undecided on a course of action over the past few months. "Time is running out, and even now it is not too late. A joint session should debate whether to bring forth new legislation or strengthen the existing one," he added.

Mr. Raghupathy said it was not too tricky a problem for the Krishna Government to solve, as about 80 per cent of private professional colleges were run by Congressmen or sympathisers of the Congress. It was the Government which had complicated the admission process, he alleged. There were contradictions even within the Cabinet Subcommittee constituted to resolve the issue, he said, and added that the Law Minister, D.B. Chandre Gowda, and the Higher Education Minister, G. Parameshwar, were making conflicting statements.

Mr. Raghupathy said the Government should not prompt the managements of colleges to go to the court and stall the process of admissions. "The Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, and the KPCC President, Janardhana Poojary, should sort out the problem across the table with their fellow Congressmen," he suggested. "Rather than stage a gimmick to please students and their parents, and covertly dance to the tunes of the managements, the Government should be more transparent. In the alternative, it should bring forth the necessary amendment to the Abolition of Capitation Fee Act, or ensure new legislation."

In Mr. Raghupathy's view, the Government was only keen on issuing a notification to guide admissions, and this would prove to be a handy tool for private managements to move the court. He said: "What the Government should do at the present juncture is to evolve an understanding with the managements, and thereafter, regulate admissions and fix the fee structure. It should go back to the past when 50 per cent of seats were reserved for Karnataka-based merit students, and the remaining seats were set apart as payment seats for students from outside the State. The Government should constitute a fund to subsidise the cost of providing education to meritorious, backward, and rural students in private colleges."

The entrance test introduced in 1984 was appreciated by students and private college managements, although the Abolition of Capitation Fee Act was challenged in the court. Prior to the introduction of the entrance test by any State government, a few professional institutions, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology, CMC, Vellore, and BITS, Pilani, conducted entrance examinations. The apex court's orders on the Capitation Fee Act resulted in the Government constituting the CET.

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