Central Universities Entrance Test- the death knell for school education

The Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET) is a much discussed topic among parents whose kids are in the final year of school.  My niece is very anxious. She wants to do law after school which means she has to give Common Law Admission Test (CLAT).  The syllabus is frightful.  Not only does she need to know law and political science but also general knowledge and logical reasoning.  I purchased couple of books for her to study and took a peek into it. I was horrified. If I was to give this exam, I would surely not pass.  Anyway, there are coaching centers for CLAT and my niece has joined couple of them.  But every now and then she has a panic attack.  Her main worry is that how much she needs to focus on the board exams.  We discussed the matter over lunch one day and came to the conclusion that since Delhi University is going to follow CUET, there is not much point getting flustered over the board exams.  She will have to qualify CUET to get admission into Delhi University.   That is only if she does not get through CLAT.  CLAT is plan A and CUET is plan B.

The glitch?  Oh well, there are coaching for CUET too.  There is no structured syllabus for CUET because each University offers different courses and their requirements are different. As a colleague put, the exam is like Civil service exams for undergrads.  As all entrance exams, this one too is an eliminating exam.  So the sylllabus for CUET has no relevance to what is taught in the school.

The UGC chairperson has declared that there is no need to take any coaching for CUET.  I do not know which world he is living in. In the real world, CUET coaching centers have started brisk business.  

The real problem was of course was the way the students were graded in the board exams. Over a period of time, the marks got inflated so much so that even in subjects like History or English, students were awarded 100%. All they had to do was to write the key words as described in the text book.  Instead of fixing the pedagogy and overhauling the board exams, the UGC in its great wisdom decided to introduce CUET.

Meantime, my job this year is to ensure that my niece and I retain our sanity as we navigate the college admission process.