ABSTRACT

Professional Colleges - Admission of students - Abolition of Common Entrance Test and Discontinuation of improvement examination from the academic year 2005-2006-Orders - Issued

Higher Education (J2) Department

G.O.Ms.No.184
Dated:9.6.2005.

Read:-

G.O.Ms.No.657, Education Department, dated 29.5.1984

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ORDER:

Parents and students as also educationists have been unanimous in expressing the need for a simplified system for admission to professional colleges particularly in undergraduate Engineering, M.B.B.S. and allied courses, B.V.Sc, B.Sc.(Agri.) undergraduate Law and similar other disciplines.

2. Prior to 1984-1985 admission to professional colleges was done based on the academic marks plus the marks in an interview. The interview was replaced by an entrance test conducted by the Anna University for admission to the professional colleges from the year 1984-1985. This procedure of admitting the students to the professional colleges based on the academic marks plus the marks obtained in the entrance tests was followed upto 1996-1997 and thereafter as a further expansion of the scheme the Government introduced a Single Window System of admission from the year 1997-1998.

3. Till 2002 i.e. prior to the Judgment in T.M.A.Pai case, admission to Government quota seats was being done through Single Window Counselling System of the State Government and students’ ranking was done based on the +2 marks and the marks in the entrance test. The management quota seats were however being filled up by the management themselves for which no entrance test was conducted. After the 11 Judges Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India delivered its Judgment in T.M.A.Pai case the same method of making admission to Government quota seats by combining the marks obtained by the students in +2 and entrance test through Single Window Counselling is being continued without any change. However, in respect of admissions under management quota, the management of self-financing professional colleges were instructed to make admissions in a fair and transparent manner. Following these instructions, during the year 2003-04 the managements admitted the students by conducting entrance tests by themselves.

4. The Five Judges Bench of Supreme Court of India in Islamic Academy of Education and Another Vs. State of Karnataka and Others in its Judgment dated.14.8.2003 has held that admission under the management quota seats has to be done based on the entrance test conducted by the State Government or by the Association of self-financing professional colleges of a particular type. In so far as Government quota seats are concerned the procedure of admission was being continued based on +2 marks and marks obtained in the entrance examination conducted by the Anna University through Single Window Counselling. In respect of admission under management quota, as per the Judgment in the Islamic Academy of education case, the Association of engineering colleges or the Association of medical colleges as the case may be, permitted by the Judge’s Committee (Justice S.S.Subramani), conducted the common entrance test and admission to self-financing colleges were done based on the marks obtained in +2 and the marks obtained in the common entrance test conducted by the Association in 2004-2005

5. The Government have been considering requests from various quarters for doing away with the common entrance test for admission to professional colleges. It has been opined that the Common Entrance Examination has now become a traumatic experience for parents and children as it appears to determine at one stroke the future of the child. In particular, students from rural areas are affected as the Entrance Examination operates against their chances to gain admission. The Plus 2 examination itself is a serious examination of merit as laid down by the Supreme Court. With the tremendous expansion in the educational facilities in the State, the opportunities for students in Professional Courses have been substantially enhanced. Parents are now taking enormous effort and interest in helping their wards all through the year to successfully complete the Plus 2 examination. This allows the student to develop his/her knowledge in a proper school environment over the course of the years.

6. While considering all aspects mentioned supra the judgment of the Five Judges Bench of Supreme Court in Islamic Academy of Education case indicates that,

The judgment contemplates adopting a practical approach relying on merit which the +2 marks themselves constitute. A merit based system relying on the +2 marks alone would thus be just and sufficient. The +2 examination is itself verily an entrance test to get admitted to higher level courses and admission to Professional Courses. This obviates the need for any separate common entrance test. It is now proposed to make the admissions by ranking the students based on the marks obtained by them in the +2 examination to ensure that meritorious students get their choice of colleges and courses. Further it is considered that the present system of improvement examination has led to a problematic situation in admission where large percentage of seats are cornered by a small number of students who are in a position to take such improvement examination. It acts against those who cannot afford to take coaching classes and appear for improvement examinations. It has therefore been decided that admission of students for undergraduate professional courses based on a common Entrance Test may be abolished and the system of improvement examination may be discontinued from the academic year 2005-2006.

7. The Government accordingly direct that,

(i) a new policy of admissions be introduced for admission to various professional institutions for undergraduate courses from the academic year 2005-2006 to ensure admissions purely on the basis of the marks obtained in the +2 examination and based on the rule of reservation of the State Government. This will cover admission to B.E./B.Tech and allied courses, M.B.B.S., B.D.S., B.Pharm and allied courses, B.Sc. (Agriculture) and allied courses, B.V.Sc., B.F.Sc., Law and such undergraduate courses for which the entrance examination has been prescribed.

(ii) the procedure followed hitherto for the computation of +2 marks in assessing the rank for entry into the courses spelt out in para 7(i) above be continued to be followed;

(iii) the Single Window System of Counselling for all professional courses be continued to be followed;

(iv) the following order of priority be followed to determine the rank of such students in case of two or more candidates obtaining equal aggregate marks (tie) in the related subjects: