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Academics urge TN government not to oppose CUET for Central university admissions

- May 10, 2022

Chennai, May 10 (BPNS)

Academics of Tamil Nadu has urged the state government not to oppose the Central University Entrance Test (CUET) for admission to central universities.

Former Vice-Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University, Dr. E. Balaguruamy has called upon the Tamil Nadu government that opposing CUET would deny the students of the state to study in prestigious central universities of the country.

In a statement on Tuesday, Dr. Balagurusamy said, “ A common entrance examination is a golden opportunity for students to explore, excel and expand in their educational and carrier advancement.”  The renowned academic of Tamil Nadu said that the UPA government had introduced the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) which was held across the country and added that CUET was only a revised version.

He said that as there are several boards in the country the Central universities would not be able to rank the students on the basis of their Plus 2 marks and that a common entrance test is a scientific method to get admission to the central universities. The former Vice-Chancellor also said that this would help the students not to write 50 entrance tests for various central universities and instead the students will be ranked based on the CUET.

Dr. Balagurusami said that the students of Tamil Nadu are not inferior to anyone and that it would be an insult to the students of the state to say that they would find it difficult to get admitted to Central Universities through CUET.

He also dismissed the allegations that the students from the rural backgrounds would be affected by the CUET and said that they were intellectually on par with or better than the students from the Urban background.

Dr. R. Padmanabhan, Director, Socio-Economic Development Foundation, a think tank based out of Madurai while speaking to BPNS said, “CUET is a test based on the syllabus that is taught in schools and bringing out opposition to this All India test is an insult to the students of Tamil Nadu.”

The senior academic said that the students of Tamil Nadu will crack the CUET and said that opposing the All India examination would be a major insult to the students of the state.

He said that CUET provided an opportunity to pursue education at reputed Central universities and to seek employment anywhere else in the country.

It may be noted that the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly had adopted a resolution urging the Union government to withdraw the proposal of conducting the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). All political parties except the BJP supported the resolution.

Tamil Nadu assembly felt that any Entrance examination based on NCERT syllabus would not provide an equal opportunity for all students who have studied in various state board syllabi across the nation.

BJP floor leader Nainar Nagendiran while opposing the resolution said that entrance examination was held for admissions to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchi, and Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Tiruchi since the past several years and urged for the withdrawal of resolution and later staged a walkout along with the three other legislators of the BJP.