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| Monday, Sep 26, 2005
No end to engineering admissions confusion
- Vacant seats in State put at 20,000
- SC directive has two riders
- State has to decide on the admission process
Chennai: The admission process to private self-financing engineering colleges has been further complicated with the Supreme Court allowing these institutions to fill the vacant seats on the basis of Plus-Two marks if they do not have candidates who have taken a common entrance test (CET).
Apart from the nearly 12,000 seats that were not filled in the Single Window System for the Government quota seats, at least 100 colleges have varying number of seats in their management quota lying unfilled.
A conservative estimate puts the number of vacant seats in Tamil Nadu at about 20,000.
Going by the court order, colleges affiliated to the All India Medical and Engineering Colleges Association, across the country, can now fill the vacant seats "on the basis of merit marks obtained in 10 + 2 examination conducted by the CBSE or other Boards."
There are two riders to this carte blanche: it would be open to the State Government to send the list of candidates seeking admission, who have taken the CET conducted by the State, or by a consortium, and have not got admission. Secondly, the directions are only for 2005-06.
Once the orders are communicated to the State Government, it will have to decide, in consultation with Anna University, on how to go about the admission process.
Education officials point out that all colleges had begun their academic year at least by September 1.
Considering the fact that it should take a couple of weeks to complete fresh admission formalities, they wonder if it would be feasible to grant admissions now and let the students take a semester examination by November/December.
There is also the other issue of additional seats, about 5,600, which the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) granted to about 60 colleges in the State recently, after counselling was over.
Minimum criteria
However, decision-makers argue that the Supreme Court directive had clearly stated that minimum criteria for professional course admissions fixed by the State have to be followed.
In Tamil Nadu, students in open competition need at least 60 per cent aggregate marks in Plus-Two, BC students need 55 per cent and MBC category candidates 50 per cent in the higher secondary to be eligible for B.E/B.Tech admissions.
Chairman of the Permanent Committee for conduct of CET, S.S. Subramani, however, notes that the Supreme Court has, in the Islamic Academy case as well as its latest August 2005 judgment, states that admissions should be merit-based, that too, decided by a CET score.
He sees a discrepancy if meritorious students with CET scores fail to get the college of their choice while those without a CET score make it to preferred colleges.
Single window counselling
Salem-based analyst Jayaprakash Gandhi notes that 30,000 candidates did not turn up for the single window counselling.
"It means they rejected those colleges that lacked infrastructure, teaching faculty or education standards. The situation will only allow innocent candidates from other States to be lured by these colleges."
Courtesy: The Hindu
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