Engineering & Medical Admissions Should Not be Based on Single Exam: SC to Govt.

The Supreme Court has asked the government to frame separate guidelines to do away with the current system of granting admissions to engineering and medical courses through a single entrance examination. The court stated that these entrance examinations are creating pressure on students and one single entrance exam should not decide the future of students. Instead, 40% weightage must be given to Class 12 marks and 60% weightage must be given to the score in the entrance examination while shortlisting the candidates.

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The bench comprising of U.U. Lalit and A.K. Goel expressed their concern over the fact that deciding the future of a student through a single entrance examination is wrong. However, the court does not have any authority to take the decision on the issue. Therefore, it asked the government to consider the recommendation and frame appropriate guidelines. The court also asked the government to set up a separate mechanism for regulating private coaching institutes.

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The bench was hearing a PIL filed by SFI seeking regulation of private coaching institutes. However, the court indicated that there could be a separate mechanism to regulate these institutes. It could not put a blanket ban on them. It further meant that commercialization of education can be curbed through a separate mechanism.

Advocate Deepak Prakash, who appeared on behalf of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) indicated that there are more than 40,000 private coaching institutes in India and only rich students are availing the benefits of these centres while the poor or economically weaker students are deprived of the same. On the other hand, if a student fails to crack the entrance exam after taking coaching, he/she may go into depression which leads to a high number of suicides, as seen.

However, the court clarified that it would ask the government to set up a separate mechanism for regulating coaching institutes.