JOIN USThe State government’s intention to have a single CET and its efforts to convince the COMED-K members to scrap their entrance test has largely drawn a favourable response from parents and students. While the pre-eminent reason among parents to choose the CET is the fee structure, the students themselves reckon that the CET is an exam of merit in more ways than one.
Mahadev B N, a physically challenged student and a candidate who appeared for CET 2009, says not only are the COMED-K seats more expensive, the standard of the entrance exam is too low. “The COMED-K is known to be much easier than the CET and all you require for a seat is money. But on the other hand, I know that the CET is entirely based on merit and requires a high ranking to get into a quality college,” he says.
Parents too prefer the CET, but more obvious factors figure for their choice of the pioneering entrance test. Guruprasad R S, a banker and a parent of a CET applicant says: “The CET is simply more affordable than the COMED-K. And there is no discernible advantage that COMED-K offers, so the CET will definitely be my preferred choice.”
B Koteshappa, a parent and someone who works in the field of education, says the so-called higher quality among private colleges is a myth. “One or two colleges among the COMED-K colleges might have good infrastructure but the majority of them are even worse than government colleges,” he says. There are no teachers, necessary equipment or even adequate campuses sometimes, he adds.
For some students the presence of multiple entrance exams are often a way to increase the probability of getting a seat. P Lohith Kumar, another CET applicant, has written four entrance examinations for professional courses. “For me the existence of CET, COMED-K, AIEEE and so on just give the students additional choice. I wrote a few of them only to increase the probability of gaining a seat,” he says.
However, for most others the choice just does not exist. Tarun Shekhar, a CET 2009 candidate and a physically challenged candidate after an accident, says: “I just was not able to write multiple entrance exams because it was physically improbable.” He adds that for him the best bet was CET because there is special category of seats in the CET that are dedicated for the physically challenged.