NEW DELHI: Following Delhi University’s decision to conduct a common entrance for admissions to undergraduate programmes from the next academic year, principals of private and government schools agreed the move could help bridge the gap between school and college education.
In DU’s Executive Council meeting on Friday, the university decided to replace the education board marks-based admission with entrance exams. DU officials said the board results of Class XII would be considered only as a qualifying factor.
School principals, however, contended that the relevance of board examinations would continue. Jyoti Arora, principal, Mount Abu Public School, said, “The board examination will definitely continue being an important assessment. It bridges the gap between school and college education. An entrance exam is definitely a good decision. Why should a child be deprived if for some reason the board result is not good enough? The National Education Policy, 2020, too talks about a holistic approach to education and this change will be in that direction.”
For A K Jha, principal of SV Co-ed Vidyalaya, Rohini, the common entrance examination will be preparatory for aspirants in other competitive exams. “Apart from the fact that the entrance exam can help students sitting for other competitive exams, another important aspect will be that marks from across the different education boards will get equalised through this mode. The students will still have to take the Class XII boards seriously because other universities might want to consider those results for admission.”
Many also argued that school education wouldn’t be negated because such an entrance exam demanded a good knowledge base. “How one gets through an entrance examination is based on what a school has taught that student,” pointed out Tania Joshi, principal, The Indian School. “No one will neglect school education. See how science students, despite facing IIT JEE and NEET, strive to perform well in the board exams.”
Many educationists added that doing away with the system of cutoff marks for admission to DU was a good move and that the university should chalk out a proper plan to implement the same because the number of colleges and courses involved was huge.
R Govinda, former vice-chancellor, National University of Educational Planning, said, “Entrance examinations are already being conducted for many different streams, so if DU is really able to implement an all-India testing system, then it will be a very good move. The ridiculous approach of the need for a 100% score to get admissions will also be done away with. The number of students involved in DU is huge with many of them from different states. But there are numerous courses, so the university has to plan the admission tests really well.”
