Colleges cut CU off reality
Cut-off marks for admission to undergraduate courses in several colleges remain different for students coming from the state and central boards despite Calcutta University’s promise of a level playing field.
The disparity in selection criteria for a student who has passed Higher Secondary and another from the CBSE is, in some cases, as high as 30 per cent.
For instance, a student coming through the state board and aspiring to a seat in the English department of Asutosh College would need at least 65 per cent in the subject if it was his/her first language and 70 per cent if it was the second. The cut-off would be 95 per cent for a CBSE student with English as the core paper and 85 per cent if it were the elective subject, which is supposed to be tougher.
Principal Debabrata Chaudhury argued that the tiered system was a fair one, but didn’t say why colleges were persisting with it after having agreed to the university’s decision on uniform admission rules.
“We understand that the Higher Secondary syllabus, examination system and marking pattern have been restructured to establish parity with the ISC and CBSE curriculum. But we have noticed that the number of high scorers — 90 per cent and above — are more in the realm of ISC and CBSE than Higher Secondary. We realised that we would be doing injustice to Higher Secondary students if we fixed equal cut-off marks for all boards,” Chaudhury said.
Maulana Azad, Lady Brabourne and Shree Shikshayatan are the other colleges that have fixed different cut-off percentages.
“I had heard there would be no discrimination, and I am surprised to see colleges like Asutosh, Lady Brabourne and Maulana Azad setting different standards for admission to their English departments. Some colleges have different cut-off percentages for even subjects like history and political science,” said Indrani Bhattacharya, a CBSE student whose aggregate meets Lady Brabourne’s standards but not her marks in the subject she wants to major in.
Sanghamitra Mukherjee, the principal of Lady Brabourne, said her institution was “not discriminating” between students in any way. “We will bring out one merit list.”
Calcutta University is waiting for complaints against the colleges before initiating action, though why a student would choose to do it and risk being blacklisted is anybody’s guess.
“Colleges cannot have different cut-off marks. We have already informed them that students from the state and other boards should be treated on a par. Appropriate steps will be taken against colleges that violate the rules,” vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said.
Till 2006, almost every college would deduct a fraction of the marks scored by CBSE and ISC students while considering them for admission on the ground that their Higher Secondary counterparts had to go through a less liberal marking system.
The state board last year altered its syllabus and the system of evaluation to establish parity with central boards, resulting in higher pass percentages and an increase in the number of high performers.
More : telegraphindia.com