Editor,
The ‘Plight of NEHU students ‘by Wilbert Thangkhiew (ST July 15, 2022) has come at the most critical hour. If what the writer lamented on NEHU infrastructure, WIFI connectivity, Covid care and his final concern of CUET as well as NEP is correctly understood by the readers then it is a serious issue that Thangkhiew is voicing and those running NEHU should take heed. Alas! Even when so many letters have appeared on the subject of neglect of students’ welfare it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
The aforementioned letter is critical because July 15 is the day before the first ever CUET exam of about 60 lakhs of UG aspirants to central universities in India will be held. There are accounts of a girl from Kerala who received her admit card a few days before the exams with the Centre not specified. A girl from Ambala complained of multiple exams on the same day and different dates for the same subject. A director of schools in Delhi saw no hope for his students and is ready to reconcile his lot to their admission into local colleges run by the state. Another student who scored 80% in her Class 12 and would have been sure of getting admission into the top colleges of Delhi in the past is now uncertain of her future. In the past at least 10 to 20 UG aspirants from Meghalaya would get admission to top colleges in Delhi, Calcutta, Bengalaru, Mumbai etc. Now they are unsure if they can get in through the CUET. Those who can write the CUET in their mother tongues have an unfair advantage against those that have to write the exam in English. There is no level playing field now!
Imagine 60 lakh students being examined by a single National Testing Agency when in the past the colleges and universities could examine the aptitude of students meticulously. And with the testing reduced to answering multiple choice questions (MCQs) the aptitude of students and the institutions they pass out from are belittled.
It’s a case of confusion, worse confounded with students getting different centres for different exams.
NDTV interviewed M. Jagdesh Kumar, Chairman, UGC, the man behind CUET on the issue of admit cards with two distant centres for paper 1 paper 2 due to scheduling error. The Chairman said if the complaints are true they would be immediately rectified. He also promised to grant sufficient days to UG aspirants who are victims of any error. On online tests the anchor posed a very important question about connectivity for students from rural India. To this the chairman pointed out that NEET and JEE with 50 lakhs examinees comprising rural students have not faced any problems. Perhaps the UGC Chairman does not know the remoteness and poor connectivity in the North East.
The computer generated MCQs would prove a disaster to our children who are taught the traditional way to master subjects from prescribed books. To reduce all that they learnt to a 3- hour MCQ, that too only from class 12 syllabus is pathetic. Yet the UGC Chairman defended CUET saying he emulates the UK and USA! The Chairman also defends CUET as a level playing field as the online examination at the higher secondary level was marred by the fact that evaluators of respective colleges/ higher secondary schools got to mark their own students’ papers. Before Covid we got the best UG aspirants in top universities all over India. The reason is because there were paper setters with experience and who had to follow strict regulations.
The bottom-line is that with CUET many deserving students would miss the college of their dreams. The batch of 2019 -20 -21 who are now studying in Delhi, Bengalaru Calcutta and Madras etc are the last lucky batch.
Yours etc.,
W. Passah,
Via email
One shame upon another
Editor,
The crashing of the spectators’ gallery at the Polo Third Field Football ground was a disaster waiting to happen. It is well known that controlling enthusiastic fans is near impossible and for years that gallery has been the way it is with no attempt to turn it into a more durable structure. The collapse of the dome in the State Assembly building seems like a bad omen for Meghalaya even as one after another we see public spaces collapsing or buildings developing cracks and so many other scams. You name it the MDA Government is in it. Yet the political parties currently running the show are very sure of returning to power in 2023. Unless the common people of Meghalaya – the hoi polloi – decide that enough is enough we will have the same set of people taking us for a ride for the next five years before Meghalaya finally reaches a point of no return. This State is surviving on loans (we don’t even know the cumulative amounts) and as someone earlier had rightly pointed out the repayments capacity of the State is suspect. Oh yes the Central Government is overwriting all these loans. But for how long?
The political forces that need to give the present set of MLAs in the MDA a run for their money have to align and fight a combined battle keeping the State as a priority and setting aside their personal ego. What has happened with the Congress at the Centre should not happen here in Meghalaya where the Opposition is reduced to a toothless tiger. We are in dire straits and it is important for people to awake and arise now before it is too late. Do I sound like someone sounding a death knell? Well, the signs are writ large before us if we care to see. Now the casinos will come in where at least two ministers have a direct interest. And all the humbug about Meghalayans not being able to join the merry company at the gambling table is humbug. The casino coming up near a college in Umiam -Khwan should alert us about the lengths to which people in this government will go to earn filthy lucre.
Yours etc.,
Draistar Kharbuki,
Via email