CUET: A Test To Make All Other Tests Redundant

‘CUCET Examination online courses and mock tests’: just as I opened my laptop, this announcement popped up on my screen. It offers daily live classes by expert faculty, full mock tests, instant double resolution report card, performance analysis with a promise of full syllabus coverage. I was shocked. It was as if the internet was reading my mind. I have been thinking about the Central University Entrance Test (CUET) and here is the offer. 

Then I found that there are other companies competing with each-other, offering discount and promising success. It was of course for the combined test some central universities have for admissions to their undergraduate courses. 

The entrepreneurship of the great Indian coaching industry is unmatched. But this is only one of the immediate fallouts of the centralised test to enter the undergraduate courses in the central universities. There were warnings and its signs were also available. One more centralised test, one new opportunity for the coaching shops. This is what we should call ‘Kota-fication’ of Indian education. 

The anxieties created by another test, apart from the school-leaving examination can have unforeseen consequences. But who cares about the young hearts and minds? The Union government through the University Grants Commission has decided that they must undergo yet another centralised test to qualify for the undergraduate courses run by the central universities of India. The UGC wants all universities and higher education institutions to join this test. It means even the state universities are being coaxed to go for this. Forget the idea of federalism and the fact that education is on the concurrent list and not solely on the union list. This central test seeks to take away the power of the states over their universities in one more area.   

CUET promises a level-playing field, uniformity, and a central command, an obsession with this regime in all aspects of our life and also something we as a society crave for. So, the esoteric idea of the autonomy of the universities in the matter of admissions to their courses is bound to lose before this grand design.

The UGC has made it mandatory for all the central universities to admit students in their undergraduate programmes only on the basis of the score of the Central University Entrance Test (UG-CUET) to be conducted by the NTA. They are also being nudged to admit students to their PG programmes on the basis of a PG-CUET score. The NTA notification indicates that a good number of central universities have opted in favour of the CUET.  It is claimed that this step is in pursuance of what the NEP 2020 had proposed. But NEP, while envisaging such a test never asked it to be made compulsory. To be fair to the NEP, it argues for a common principle for admissions taking into account the diversity of the institutions.

In India, however we know that policies are used as a fig leaf to hide the real intent. The intent is to gain control over universities. It is done in many ways. By enforcing common curriculum and then by having a centralised admission system for all the courses, starting from BA/BSc to Ph.D.

As was expected, all universities have in one voice expressed their support for it. You will get an idea of how it is achieved by one example. Our university wanted our department to okay the proposal to join this test. This is the due process you are expected to follow while taking an academic decision. We as the authorised committee of our department found the proposal vague and asked the university to give more clarity to us about the design of the test to enable us to take a decision. The very next day, with a notice of two hours, the same committee was reconvened and the previous decision overturned! This is how consent is coerced and made to look voluntary. Vice Chancellors, directors, deans and heads are too willing to say yes to anything which is sent from above. This is the independence of mind of those who promise to help young minds inculcate a critical spirit!

There has been a general welcome to the test. The absurdity of high cut off marks set by the colleges of the University of Delhi is cited and also the inconvenience of the students who have to run from one university to the other for admission. But should it only be the experience of DU which should decide about the method of try to decide admissions for undergraduate courses? What is the experience of the Hyderabad Central University or Allahabad University? Or the JNU? Or Jadavpur University? 
As said before, the UGC, ignoring the federal character of the country and the fact of education being on the concurrent list, also wants all state universities to opt for it. 

As has been pointed out by Professor Furqan Qamar, the institutions of national importance and the central universities account for a mere 0.78 per cent and 1.93 per cent of students respectively. Prof. Qamar pointed out, “The experiences and anxieties of such a minuscule segment cannot be extended to a vast majority without a thorough study of implications. After all, a few states still feel that subjecting them to a national-level entrance test for medical students has been unjust on account of merit and inclusivity.”

The principled opposition of the state of Tamil Nadu to NEET is what Prof. Qamar is referring to. There is also a fear of centralised counseling even as the UGC has refrained from mentioning it as necessary. But given the way the UGC is moving in the direction of centralisation, the fear remains.

We must first understand the problem. The challenge comes from the high number of students aspiring to join higher education. The number of seats in universities like DU are disproportionately lower than the applicants. Why do they crowd at the gate of such universities? Because nearly all state universities have collapsed.  Bereft of any infrastructure, with most of the teaching positions vacant, these universities and colleges fail to attract the students. The unfortunate ones who, for different reasons have to take admission there, rue their fate. Ironically while the central universities complain of overcrowding, we can find seats going empty in the state colleges and universities, which are then be used as an excuse to not give teachers to them.

These colleges and universities used to be reasonably good only three decades ago. They had teachers in sufficient numbers dedicated to their vocation. They had a thriving academic culture. Their decline happened slowly and before our eyes. It was deliberate. By not appointing teachers, by letting libraries and laboratories die. And gradually the coaching centres replaced them. 

The number of students passing class 12 has risen exponentially. The response should have been in the form of increased number of colleges, faculty and other facilities. This was not done. 

Any admission process has thus become not one of admitting the desiring but eliminating the majority to make room for a small number. I as a teacher wonder how are we going to judge who is fit for admission and who is not. Can we do it honestly through a faceless, national test?

Moreover, it has been rightly pointed out that the first-generation college-goers would be at huge disadvantage vis-à-vis the more entrenched in the system while taking such a test. Schools have expressed a genuine apprehension that this test is bound to push in the background the purpose of schooling. They have the experience of NEET and CAT making schooling at the level of 11 and 12 nearly irrelevant.  Why should this new test prove to be different?

We claim that we aspire to be world-class in education. All good universities in the world have control over their curriculum, selection of teachers and students. In India, we are moving in a reverse direction.

Finally, if we want to understand whether something is good for the people or not, we need to look at how the elites are responding to it. Elites who design such policies have cut themselves off from the public education system at all levels. They send their children to the universities abroad or to the ones like the Ashoka University. What is good for the masses is what they evade. That settles the debate of not only the CUET but also other such schemes like the FYUP and even NEP.