Decide on tests in advance

The central admission test for aspiring doctors/dentists is tied up in knots with the Madras HC’s stay on the announcement of results, with questions raised on the different yardsticks followed in conducting the test in different languages. While no one wants the results stuck in a legal quagmire, a lot more thought is needed to devise a crucial national entrance test process well in advance. The situation could be fraught with tension for over a million CBSE Class 12 students, whose results may also face a similar fate at the hands of the Delhi High Court, which stayed the announcement of results. The issue caused by withdrawal of the invidious CBSE moderation system must be sorted out if the admissions process to higher education in universities isn’t to be held up interminably.

To do away with moderation appears reasonable, as it was causing a lot of imbalance in admissions, and leading to colleges setting impossible cut-off marks. But to dispense with the “moderation” midway through the board exams was to invite legal scrutiny. Here, wisdom suggests that laying a level playing field for students all over the country be done in good time so that the results don’t face legal difficulties. It is apparent that the system is being tinkered with in an unjustifiable manner. The entire processes for the next academic season over NEET and the CBSE and other board exams should be settled swiftly so that students don’t have to fret over the results.