A day after announcing that all II PUC students will be promoted with grades, the Primary and Secondary Education department on Saturday wrote to the Higher Education department asking it to consider only the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) marks for admission to professional courses.
Responding positively, the Higher Education Department will work on amending the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions Act 2006 after consulting higher education and legal experts and the Chief Minister.
Every year, the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) would consider 50 per cent of the PUC score and 50 per cent of the CET score for awarding ranks to students for admission to professional courses.
“Though the grading system will reflect the capabilities of the students, we have also given them an option of writing exams later. However, if the KEA decides to consider the marks obtained in the exam, the students who wish to appear for the exam are likely to be affected. Hence, we request you to kindly consider only the CET scores for admission to professional courses,” Primary Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar wrote in his letter.
Deputy Chief Minister and Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan said, “The Primary and Secondary Education Minister has given us a valid suggestion. All these years, a student must have secured at least 45 per cent to qualify for the CET. We will discuss this in the department and consult higher education and legal experts.”
Further, the decision by the state government must also obtain the approval of the Legislature as the CET admissions are based on the provisions of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions Act 2006.
“If we want to bring in the required change, we have to amend the law and for which we will consult legal experts and discuss with CM Yediyurappa,” Ashwath Narayan said. The K-CET 2021 exams have already been scheduled to be held on August 28 and 29.
In the meantime, the Department of Pre-University Education has also requested the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) to consider all the science students as eligible students to appear for the CET. The department is also writing to national agencies that conduct nationwide competitive examination such as NEET and JEE requesting them to allow all students to appear for competitive examinations.
According to sources at the KEA, if the department decides to consider all science students as eligible for KCET rankings, then the number of students eligible for KCET rankings will increase.
Every year, the number of students registering for KCET used to be around 1.90 lakh of which 1.30 lakh used to get the eligibility. During 2020, the total number of students in science streams were 2.15 lakh of which 1.66 lakh cleared the II PUC exams.