It agonising to watch the controversy over conducting JEE and NEET. On one side we see the anguish of young people coping with the uncertainty of the entrance exams, admissions and the academic career. On the other side, we see the concern of students and parents to participate in the admission-tests safely. To this, you add the concern of those who are currently afflicted [either to themselves or to their near ones in the recent days]. You also notice the concern of the authorities to carry out the admission process as early as possible so that the academic process is not postponed indefinitely. The concern is also concerned about creating/instilling hope and confidence among the people to fight the pandemic decisively.
Many Chief Ministers are up in arms against the Central Government for conducting the exams immediately. For anything and everything, they want to go to the Supreme Court. Political tug of war and vote-bank politics have made the order of the day.
In the next few months, conducting an exam on any day would result in some people missing it for reasons of the pandemic. In effect, it is impossible to find a perfect date for any exam in the next few months. Let us accept this reality and explore solutions rather than searching for that Perfect Friday to hold the exam.
According to me, the real cause for this controversy and conflict is our intellectual inflexibility in exploring tangible solutions to the problem at hand. India is a heterogeneous country on multiple counts; the pandemic has made the made situation more complex because of the divergent impact of Covid-19 in different parts of the country. And we want JEE or NEET to happen on a single day on a single time slot, with a single question paper universally across the country. Should we tackle an infinite problemwith a finite solution or with an infinite solution?
National Testing Agency [NTA], the authority bestowed with the task of conducting various admission tests across the country, should plan to hold JEE or NEET or similar exams on multiple dates, spread across a wide window, and aspirants should be allowed to take on a date convenient to him/her. This would resolve the situation amicably to all stakeholders.
Academicians know how to normalize the levels of difficulty of the Question Papers used is such examinations. In fact, the question papers will be created with such intent. Empower NTA with necessary resources and authorities and let the politicians back off from exam-related discussions and decisions. Are we not familiar with GMAT, GRE and other exams happening across the globe on dates spread across the year? The tragedy is that we are fixated on a single dated, single exam, with a finite syllabus and finite pattern of questions. Our focus has been on rote memory; critical thinking is alien to us. This has led to the mushrooming of coaching classes which have emerged as a major industry.
The pandemic is giving us an opportunity to change our mindset; a change for the good indeed! I wish NTA take the lead to reform the regime of admission tests in the coming years. Single dated exams are fine for small numbers. When you have large numbers and we want to give a fair chance to every aspiring candidate we need to switch over to the new regime. We should have implemented this system long back. Even in the CBSE exams this year we would not have had to give average marks in some subjects when we could NOT hold exams in those subjects. We are not being fair to the students and their future.
