KOLKATA: College principals in Kolkata feel the evaluation process adopted by the state’s education department for higher secondary students and how quickly they declare the results will impact the admission process to the undergraduate courses.
On Monday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced the cancellation of Madhyamik and Higher Secondary examinations due to the pandemic.
CBSE and ISC had already cancelled the Class XII board examinations last week.
All three boards will devise their own criteria to evaluate students, which will be the basis of college admissions this year.
“The decision has been taken after consulting experts, academics and other stakeholders.
With all major boards cancelling the school-leaving examinations, a lot will depend on the evaluation process they adopt because that will be the only basis to conduct admissions in UG courses,” said Tapan Kumar Poddar, principal of Vivekananda College and president of the Calcutta University chapter of All Bengal Principals’ Council.
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The chief minister also instructed the officials of the school education department to come up with the evaluation criteria within seven days so that the students can be assessed on time.
“The students should not suffer on this account.
Many will need it for taking competitive examinations and applying to colleges,” the CM said.
Earlier, some colleges would hold entrance examinations for a few subjects to assess the candidates’ aptitude to study a particular subject.
But such tests were discontinued by the education department in 2019.
Barring a few autonomous colleges, all others will have to follow the admission guidelines of the affiliating university.
Last year, Jadavpur University had to cancel the admission tests for the humanities subjects due to the pandemic and the admissions were completely based on the evaluations of Class XII examinations.
Calcutta University is yet to make a decision while Presidency University has scheduled a test in August, but nothing else has been decided.
Some colleges, like JD Birla Institute, have decided to hold an online interaction with applicants for some subjects.
“It is a good way of knowing the students.
We have still not met the students who took admission last year as the entire process was online and no personal interaction was possible.
This time, we might have an online interaction with applicants of some subjects,” said principal Deepali Singhee.
Last year, for the cancelled examinations, HS students were assessed on the best marks scored in papers they had written before the lockdown.
ISC students were evaluated with marks in the best three subjects along with the total score in practical and project work.
In CBSE, students who completed all their examinations had their results declared based on performances.
Students who appeared in more than three examinations had the cancelled exams’ score calculated based on the average of marks scored in the best three.
For those who appeared for just three exams, the cancelled exams’ score was determined by the marks scored in the best two tests.