Our State Govt. is desperate to abolish MHT-CET –the common entrance test for medical, engineering and pharmacy courses in Maharashtra. A report has been published by Times Of India, which can be read online. MHT-CET is being conducted as per a Supreme Court of India ruling, and this proposition to abolish MHT-CET is the State’s initiative.

A panel has already been appointed to explore ways to abolish MHT-CET. Few reasons cited in the above and some other reports are that

1. Declining importance of H.S.C. Board Exam
2. Profiteering of coaching classes
3. Increased study load on students.

I personally think that all the above cited reasons are silly and will not stand against the Supreme Court. This move by the State seems a move of convenience rather than providing any real benefit to students.

If the importance of H.S.C. Board Exams is declining, then I am happy to see that its getting the less importance its worth. The methodology of testing in H.S.C. board exams is too outdated. Marks scored by student depend not only upon his efforts, but also upon the examiner. Now do you all really think that an ‘examiner’ should be a deciding factor? The fate of the student should depend only upon his exam preparation and an objective evaluation of it. The ground-reality is that the H.S.C. Board cannot even provide precise guidelines for examiners to evaluate answer papers. Their so called “Sanctioned textbooks” are full of factual errors and inconsistencies. Some lazy examiners do not even bother to read the answers and some even adopt practices like evaluation on the basis of presentational beauty. This is the precise reason why we see every year students who failed later pass out with flying colors after verification of marks. I wonder why the Govt. thinks that the H.S.C. Board Exam is worth any importance after all this. Their website cannot even enlist the sanctioned textbooks, and private book publishers are actually profiteering from such lapses.

Some teachers are supporting this move to citing increased study load as a reason. While a few of these may have genuine reasons, other are mostly incompetent teachers at CET. Teaching for theory-oriented H.S.C. exam is lot easier than CET. The CET not only tests a student’s expertise but also the teacher’s expertise. The bulk of the teachers opposing CET are old-fashioned who will either retire within the next 10 years or be phased-out by better ones. I have myself been a ranker at MHT-CET(Med. Rank-333, Yr: 2005, First attempt) and myself experienced the incapacity of some teachers. I wish these teachers would understand that CET is not their cup of tea and gracefully allow other teachers to do their job.

If the Maharashtra Govt. really feels that their H.S.C. Board Exams are really worth the importance, they should have a reason why H.S.C. toppers do not perform well at CET. Maharashtra Govt. is like evolution read backwards!