Common entrance test won’t affect Boards, says CBSE secy

The Union government’s decision to institute a Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for undergraduate admissions in all central universities will not affect the board examination process, said a top Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) official, who also stressed there was no plan to do away with the Class 10 and 12 board exams in the near future.

The Centre last month announced that it will conduct a common entrance test for admission to all undergraduate courses, in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and made its score a mandatory yardstick for all central universities. Several stakeholders have since raised concerns that the test will make school performance irrelevant, and questioned the point of the CBSE schoolleaving examinations.

The National Progressive Schools Conference (NPSC), a consortium of over 400 private schools of Delhi, last month even wrote to the Union education ministry, requesting to give weightage to Class 12 marks in undergraduate admissions along with CUET, and alleged that the CUET “will defeat the purpose of schooling”.

Speaking to HT on Tuesday, CBSE secretary (administration, affiliation & finance) Anurag Tripathi said the common entrance exam will not make any difference to the board’s assessment process. “CBSE will continue conducting board examinations for both classes 10 and 12. There is no plan to do away with these exams. The introduction of CUET will, in fact, increase the concentration of students in schools as they will now have to appear for an entrance exam which will be completely based on the Class 12 syllabus. It will motivate them to work harder than ever,” he said. When asked if CBSE requested the education ministry to give some weightage to Class 12 scores for undergraduate admissions, Tripathi said, “There are different education boards in the country and not just CBSE. This decision has been taken in the wider interest of students by the higher authorities.”

The CUCET was introduced at a time when the cut-offs for admission into undergraduate courses were touching 99-100%. With the introduction of CUET, while central universities like DU will now be able to use class 12 marks only as minimum eligibility criteria, state and private universities may continue using board examination marks for merit-based admissions.

Sudha Acharya, chairperson of NPSC, believes CUET may dilute the importance of school education. “While international universities require annual scores of class 11 and predicted scores of 12, unfortunately these scores will stand ineffectual for our Indian universities,” she said.

Educationist Meeta Sengupta said school performance and board marks will always remain relevant. “...especially in the first few years of CUET as it establishes itself… it is not wise to ever wholly depend on CUET.”