Students appear for the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) exam at National College, Basavanagudi, in Bengaluru, on Wednesday. April 16, 2025.
Credit: DH PHOTO/PUSHKAR V
Bengaluru: The performance of students from state-run pre-university colleges in the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) is far from impressive despite the government launching free online coaching for them.
According to the data available from the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), only two students from government PU colleges made it to the top 100 ranks in the engineering stream. Even in the first 25,000 ranks, only 581 students from government colleges found a place.
When it comes to pharm-D, veterinary, nursing and yoga and naturopathy, no student from government colleges was in the top 100. In the BSc (Agri) stream, seven students were able to position themselves in the top 100.
This is in stark contrast to the performance of candidates from private PU colleges, with as many as 95 of them in the top 100 in engineering stream; 97 each in pharm-D, veterinary, nursing and yoga and naturopathy and 99 in BSc (Agri). In the engineering stream, 8,876 private PU students were in the top 25,000 ranks.
Stakeholders are calling for legalising 'integrated' education and introducing the same at government colleges. Integrated education combines regular school lessons with preparation for competitive exams.
Supreeth BR, secretary, Karnataka Unaided PU College Managements Association, said the online coaching introduced by the government is not effective. "The state government introduced online coaching this time, but it was not at all effective. The education department should provide students updated study material. Integrated education is most important for students to crack competitive exams and I feel it must be legalised and introduced at all colleges."
He felt that government college students cannot afford private tuition and introduction of integrated education will stop mushrooming of private coaching centers. "The government should allow private coaching centres to operate only before 9 am and after 3 pm to ensure students attend colleges during regular hours," he added.
Higher Education Minister Dr MC Sudhakar said his department would look into the demands. "We will analyse the data and submit a report to the School Education and Literacy department. We will also recommend necessary steps to be taken to improve the performance of government college students," the minister said.
In the seven streams of KCET, among the top 1,000 ranks, CBSE students bagged 647 ranks followed by ICSE (202) and state board (138).