The recommendation for holding entrance examination for courses in arts, science and engineering subjects in National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 needs to be reexamined as the students from rural areas may be deprived of education unable to clear the entrance examinations like how it’s happening in NEET, according to G. Thiruvasagam, President, Association of Indian Universities (AIU).
“Students from rural areas are finding it tough to clear entrance tests like NEET and are therefore unable to get medical seats in government colleges. The students in government schools and colleges lack coaching whereas those who can afford to pay hefty fees for coaching are managing to clear the test. Similar situations may arise for courses in arts, science and engineering if entrance tests under NEP are made mandatory,” he said.
Addressing presspersons at the University of Mysore on the occasion of 95 th annual meet and the National Conference of Vice-Chancellors that begins here from Wednesday, he said it would be difficult to increase gross enrollment ratio (GER) since many rural students lose the educational opportunity unable to pass the tests. Therefore, the admissions for courses in arts, science and engineering should remain unrestrained, he suggested.
Responding to questions on thousands of Indian students ging to Ukraine, China and other countries for medical education, he said they are migrating as they are not getting medical seats in the country. The hefty fees in private medical colleges is another reason. However, the government can play a major role and make the medical education even in private colleges reasonable by reducing the fees, he argued.
Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, AIU said the only option to address the issue of students’ immigration for medical education was to increase the number of government medical colleges.
University of Mysore Vice-Chancellor G. Hemantha Kumar, Registrar Shivappa and others were present.
