BENGALURU: Following the decision to cancel II PU exams, the state government is planning to do away with weightage to II PU scores to decide on a student’s CET (Common Entrance Test) ranking this year.
Rankings for CET are decided by allotting 50% weightage to a candidate’s II PU scores and 50% to CET scores.
CET is the gateway for admission to undergraduate engineering, technology, yoga and naturopathy, farm science and pharma courses.
On Friday, the state government decided to cancel II PU examination and, instead, promote students based on their performance in I PU.
On Saturday it said their performance in SSLC will also be considered for II PU grades.
The grades for the students – A-plus, A, B and C – will be based on the range of their scores.
On Saturday, minister for primary and secondary education, S Suresh Kumar wrote a letter to deputy chief minister CN Ashwath Narayan, who is also the minister for higher education, asking him to change the way candidates are ranked in CET examination.
Kumar suggested doing away with the weightage system this year and considering giving ranks to students based on just their CET scores.
Narayan responded to Kumar’s letter on Saturday evening and said the suggestion will be considered and a decision on the matter taken shortly.
“Till now, getting minimum marks in II PU was set as a criterion for seeking admission to engineering and medical courses.
But now, in view of the cancellation of annual examinations, this would not be possible.
So, a new decision will be arrived at after discussing with educational experts and the officials concerned,” said Narayan.
Experts welcomed the suggestion, saying it will bring CET on a par with other competitive exams.
KR Venugopal, vice-chancellor, Bangalore University told TOI that with II PU exams cancelled, this is the best option to keep CET competitive.
“Students will have a fair chance at getting a rank if he or she has the right knowledge.
They will have to work hard and put in more effort to get into institutions of higher education,” he said.
B Sadashive Gowda, principal, Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, Mysuru welcomed the decision and said it is similar to JEE, where II PU marks don’t determine ranking.
Students, however, seemed to be divided on this.
Prajwal J, a student, said this does not seem like a good idea as they are not exclusively prepared for CET.
Another student, Syed Kashif, though, was excited about the proposal.
“Though we cannot prepare for II PU exam now, we can focus on CET.
Even if our past marks are not good, we have a chance to get a rank,” he said.