It’s that time of the year again. Following the declaration of the class twelve-examination results by school boards, universities in India have released the cut-off percentage for admission seekers. The 100% cut-off percentage set by Delhi University for non-commerce stream students seeking admission in its premier college, namely Shri Ram College of Commerce, has been the contentious topic of debate is newsrooms and drawing rooms alike.
Critiques of this unprecedented high, read next to impossible, cut-off argue that it is discriminatory towards students who opted for the science and liberal arts stream in Classes XI and XII. School principals and counselors, who are supportive of the Human Resource Development Ministry’s call for lessening the ‘burden’ and ‘pressure’ of studies on students, argue that this leaves students at a disadvantage.
However, as is a trend with my posts, I belong to the contrary school of thought. An important thing that this move would do, would be to quash the misconception that most science students have, which is that since they have opted for the science stream, they are intellectually superior to a student from the liberal arts and commerce stream. It is important to establish a clear fact that a student opting for the science stream (with the exception of students with economics) doesn’t want to join Delhi University’s commerce related course over say joining engineering at IIT or medical at AIIMS. Also, if a commerce student cannot join IIT or AIIMS after 12th, why then should a non-commerce student be able to join B.Comm at SRCC?
As far as lowering the ‘astronomically high’ cut-off for even commerce students is concerned, my firm belief is that any such move would detrimental for the education system of India. It is not for nothing that India is lauded on the world stage for producing the sharpest engineers, doctors, economists, et al. There is no dearth of sub-standard colleges in India. However, the need of the hour is the setting-up of institutions offering quality education that are at par with global institutions. We must focus on quality, not quantity. Simply passing value judgments on the quality of faculty in Indian institutions shall not suffice (Jairam Ramesh, had claimed that it was the students that made the IITs great not the faculty). The government needs to step-up its game if it aspires to take the giant leap from being a developing nation to a developed superpower.
