Former Vice Chancellor of Bangalore University and a distinguished academician, Dr M S Thimmappa feels that the CET has outlived its utility and there was a case for abolishing it altogether.
“When it was started a decade ago, it certainly met some needs. There was a time when the pre university syllabus was not common throughout the state, the examinations conducted by the PU board perhaps did not come up to very high standards and a centralised test was needed to test the aptitude of students who came from diverse backgrounds. That’s not the case any more,” he argues.
He points out that in the last few years, the PU board has made a lot of progress in improving the quality and reliability of its examination system and also standardised the syllabus for all subjects, including physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology.
Dr Thimmappa says since the students have already come through a tough examination and the CET was being conducted only for state students, another entrance test on the same lines and for the same candidates was “completely redundant.”
Pointing out that about 70 per cent of the students who pass out of PUC take up the CET, he says subjecting them to another gruelling test would lead to cognative load on their minds and it was better to avoid it.
He, however, suggests that the PU board should evolve a mechanism to continuously update the syllabus, so that it meets the global standards.