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C E T for FYJC Admission ? A right move: Dr. Suresh Nair

C E T for FYJC Admission ? A right move: Dr. Suresh Nair
May 22
17:33 2021

2020-21 SSC batch has become the first ever online students of this century, because of the outbreak of Covid-19. Though the online teaching-learning was started as a temporary arrangement but considering the ground reality remote learning had to continue the whole academic year.  The present condition of the pandemic, and the subsequent lockdowns have left educators and students with hardly any option other than continuing with the online mode. Looking at the current rate of spread of this pandemic and loss of lives in many cases.we can only express our gratitude to the Lord that we are alive. Initially, both teachers and student fraternity were reluctant to accept online education but as the time went, we all have accepted it. Let’s face it– there are pros and cons of online education.Challenges definitelyoutweighs the positive side. Butsince there is not much solution to the cons, let us talk about the pros of the system, which we have to continue willingly or otherwise.

As the State has cancelled the board examination of this year’s SSC batch, the whole stakeholders of the educational field – students, parents and teachers are worried about what is to be done for first year junior college admissions. Really it is a concern, even to the government. As you all know, a poll is going on to collect the opinion of parents, teachers and students in this regard. Here I would like to put my opinion which I feel is very apt considering the unpredictable conditions of Covid-19 all over the State and even country. According to me, an entrance examination to decide the criteria of admission to standard 11 would be a very suitable solution for all the stakeholders at this juncture. For entrance examination also, we will have to pass through various stumbling blocks to achieve success.

Boards other than State board has come up with a method of obtaining the performance of students in terms of marks by considering the internal evaluations conducted during the year and keeping the performance of the students as a reference year compared to school with overall average performance of the state or country. This method will not be applicable to state board schools as many of the schools did not conduct any evaluation during the year. Even the State also urged the schools not to conduct any examination as all the students are not able to attend the same due to various technical and financial issues. Hence the only criteria based option   to select the students to standard 11 is the CET scores.

All the students, in spite of many odds, prepared for the board examination which was to be held in the month of May, as announced.  An entrance examination that may be held in the month of July will serve the purpose and will be a better solution to the crisis. This CET has to be conducted online at students’ own school  batch wise. We cannot expect that normalcy will be regained fully in near future. As admission to junior colleges have to be done on time, my suggestion would be to conduct it in the month of July. Presently every school has its own computer lab (Those schools who do not have the lab on its own may be allowed to send their children to nearby school – Even NEP 2020 suggests sharing the resources with neighboring schools). In every school, students may be called batch wise – the size depends up on the no. of computers available at the center. Since we have to test the proficiency in all the subjects, a 120 marks Objective type MCQ test of 135 minutes duration may be arranged. 20 marks weightage to each subject – first language, second language, third language, maths, science and social sciences. By now, almost all the students are well versed with answering objective type MCQs as the school must have already conducted this type of tests in google form.

Conducting the test at their own schools will not only give a familiar and happy aura to the students but take care of possible unfair means. In a day, three batches can be conducted by giving a gap of one hour between two batches. This will take care of social distancing as well as avoid large gatherings near the school.  Moreover, few teachers are to be deployed for conducting the test. Board conducts online examination for IT subject since long, hence the procedure to conduct the test is not a challenge. Since it is conducted online, the evaluation will be done automatically and instantly. The results can be declared in July itself and the process of online admission can be started immediately.

With regards to taking care of sanitizing the computer lab before and after every batch and providing hand sanitizers to each student, board can provide a lump sum amount per batch as the schools have already paid the examination fee to the board to conduct the examination. This will take care of the financial burden of the schools, which are already facing the financial crunch due to various reasons. For uniformity, this entrance examination may be kept for all the students seeking admission to junior colleges.

Dr. Suresh Nair,

Principal,

Vivek Vidyalaya and Junior College, Mumbai.

About Author

Dr. Suresh Nair

Dr. Suresh Nair

Dr. Suresh Nair is the Principal of VivekVidyalaya and Junior College, Mumbai, having 33+ years of experience in the field of education

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