JU student unions are known to be anti-establishment in stance and any student wing of the ruling party in the past or present has not been able to make much in-roads into the campus. That's something the students should be proud of because it has kept the University campus from turning into a dirty turf for political warfare as has most of the other campuses in the state has turned out to.
But at the same time the blind-folded anti-establishment stance clouds the ability to judge a situation or decision on it's merits. Sometimes it boils down to countering a decision only because the flow has been top down.
Here I would not comment on the best way, operationally, to move away from the practice of having a separate admission test for JU Arts faculty departments but would question the tradition of having a different entrance examination altogether. And how could enrollment of students based upon board examination marks dilute the standard of students joining the departments.
I would remember the time when I was myself a student. We had separate WBJEE, IITJEE and Roorkee University (which was then yet not an IIT) entrance. Each exam had some difference in format or syllabus. For each exam it was needed to undertake preparation in a different way. There were different sets of coaching institutes catering to WBJEE and IITJEE preparation. For most of the students it took a good part of the 2 years to gauge if they should aim for WBJEE or if IITJEE is also achievable for them. Many aimed high and miss; hence many more aimed low.
Life was more complicated for students who were outside Kolkata or Durgapur (which used to be a center for major entrance exams because of REC Durgapur) or some other major urban center. Students from North Bengal and other far off places in the state had to travel to Kolkata mostly for appearing in these entrance exams. Life was even more complicated for some of my friends who went to far away Banglore to appear for the the Karnataka CET. I had heard that there was a dedicated train which used to leave from Howrah carrying the Karnataka CET aspirants and their parents.
If each of the prestigious institutions start have separate entrances to maintain their prestige and elite status, life becomes hard for the students and no one else. It minimizes the chances of getting good education for the students hailing from less resourceful families.
Why it is that admitting students based upon board examination marks would dilute students? Isn't a good performer in board examination not a good student? Board examination is held in centers all through the state and when you look at the merit list of board examination you will notice that the star performers are scattered around the state and not concentrated around Kolkata or any other major urban area. Counter that with the merit list of any competitive examination.
I haven't seen the merit list of JU Arts faculty admission test but believe that won't be any different. Even it would be interesting to know the split of the participants by their area of residence. I think we would mostly be looking at 'in and around Kolkata' candidates.
Another dissenting argument heard is that West Board students score less. Though looking at the marks obtained by toppers it doesn't appear so, but still it is a flawed approach to look at the absolute marks while admitting students. What should be considered is the percentile or a scaling relative to the highest marks achieved in each board which would make the gradation platform level irrespective of the board they come from.
Having a separate entrance and thinking that it's the best step to screen the best students is an extremely taxing approach for the students. Objective should be towards streamlining the entrance mechanism for higher education and not create pockets of isolation. If the board examination results are a not enough benchmark, then JU should bring into confidence other universities or colleges in the state and create a single entrance test for humanities.
Even in Jadavpur University, as far I know, the admission to Science faculty departments takes place based on board examination results. So is for many other well known colleges and institutes like even St. Stephen's of New Delhi. In US academic system admission is not just based upon a certain test score. Surely SAT is an important component but just a good SAT score may not guarantee a good college admission.
The emphasis on a separate entrance test for humanities is a flawed criteria. It's an elimination process based upon what the student does't know; there is no attempt made to understand or evaluate what the student knows. Who should get the opportunity to study in JU; a student who has scored decently in the board examination and also excels in extra curricular activities or a student who knows answer to the specific questions asked in the entrance test.
Evaluation for entrance should be based upon level ground and board examination provides that to an extent. It should not be based upon specialized examination for which specialized preparation and resources are required; which may not accessible to all students across the state.
Sometimes it is more important to understand and judging a subject on it's own merit and not based upon who had raised the subject.
P.S: Few days later there was also a concern raised by the Mathematics department of Jadavpur University that students admitted through board examination marks system resulted in inferior student quality. They also expressed the need to move towards a separate entrance test.
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