BENGALURU: Complaints of miscommunication and technical glitches poured in after KCET results were announced on Saturday. The problem began when II PU repeater students - who were promoted in 2021 on the basis of class 10 and I PU scores - found that their II PU marks were not taken into account to decide their CET ranks.
KEA had announced this year that ranks of CET candidates would be announced by considering 50 per cent PU marks and 50 per cent CET scores. It was not the same last year as PU exams were cancelled due to the pandemic, and CET ranks were announced based on KCET-2021 scores. The decision to give weightage to both PU and CET marks has led to a considerable drop in the ranks of repeaters.
While KEA officials maintained they followed the government's (old) rule to award ranks to the 2021 batch of II PU students, several candidates said they were not informed about it and felt it was unfair as II PU marks of others were considered. Hundreds of candidates and parents protested in front of the KEA office, demanding justice and clarifications.
A parent said neither the CET notification nor any circular from KEA informed them that repeater students would be given ranks based on last year's practice. "We had visited the KEA office and repeatedly asked the officials. We were assured II PU marks would be included. The future of our children is at stake because KEA messed up," the parent said.
The variation in computing the scores has cost several students thousands of ranks. Priyanka of the 2021 batch said last year she scored 91 in CET and landed a rank of 8,000. This year, with a higher score of 106, she has a rank of 57,000. "A student of the 2022 batch with the same score as mine (106) has a rank of 3,000 as II PU marks have been included. But we are left with only CET scores," she said, claiming that grade 12 marks of CBSE repeater students have been considered.
The parents are considering approaching the high court. Girish Kulkarni said his daughter secured a rank of 28,000 with 114 marks in CET last year. "This year, her rank has dropped to 1,49,000 though she secured 125," he said.
Many repeater students decided to appear for CET again as they were dissatisfied with their results. With their ranks having fallen, many are in a bind. Within hours of the results, #JusticeforKCETdroppers was trending on Twitter.
A student replied to minister Ashwath Narayan's tweet declaring the results: "Total injustice for droppers. We faced all struggles and gave one year for our dream rank in college. But what kind of rank inflation have you done... Last year, my engineering ranking was around 9000 but this I have scored about 60 marks more than last year but got 45000 rank (sic)."
Some parents complained that despite them uploading CBSE marksheets, their children's ranks were withheld.
Ramya S, executive director of KEA, said several other CBSE students were able to upload their marksheets, so a technical glitch is ruled out. "However, those who have faced an issue can email their marksheet to our official ID and we will issue them a spot rank," she said, adding a spot rank will not affect ranks of other candidates and will be a decimal between two numbers.
Full report toi.in
