'Considering CET marks only, not favourable for rural students'

Mysore, Apr 11 (UNI) Former All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Chairman Dr S Rame Gowda today opined that the recent decision of the Karnataka Government to consider only the Common Entrance Test (CET) marks for admission to professional courses would prove to be a curse on rural students.

Participating in a meet-the-press programme, organised by the Mysore District Journalists Association here, he said that not taking into account PUC marks along with CET marks would raise questions about the need for passing PUC. While the urban students took coaching classes for taking up CET, the rural students faced much hardship as they were unaware of the CET process.

On 35 per cent seats being set apart for admissions to professional courses under the general category, Dr Gowda explained that it was not a matter of concern in respect of engineering education following the enormous increase in the number of seats to 48,000. However, meritorious students would face problems in getting admissions to medical and dental colleges as 50 per cent of the seats were for reserved categories and 15 per cent for NRIs.

Moreover, poor students would be hit hard by the steep hike in fees.

He suggested that a cess could be collected from urban students, who generally migrate to foreign countries for jobs in IT industry, for offering scholarships and loans to poor students.

Dr Gowda, who was also Advisor to the Task Force on linking rivers, said the ambitious Ganga-Cauvery project was not technically feasible. Linking of Himalayan rivers and those of the Southern region were worth pursuing. However, the much needed political will to achieve the task was lacking, he felt.

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