Mita Mukherjee

The West Bengal government has asked all state-universities to start planning about the admission process for their first-year undergraduate courses for 2021-22 academic session and inform the government the strategy developed by them, according to vice-chancellors.

 In a circular sent to vice-chancellors of all universities this week, the state higher education department wanted to know whether the universities have started planning about how they would conduct the undergraduate admissions amid the pandemic this year. Institutes which have still not started the process, would have to begin to plan soon, a higher education department official said.

The three major boards that run plus two courses in West Bengal including the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the state-controlled West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education have announced the cancellation of the 2021 Class XII examinations.   

EducationWorld spoke with vice-chancellors of five universities who said they were yet to start the process of devising the admission procedure for this year as there is still uncertainty over the evaluation criteria to be adopted by different boards for preparing the Class XII results.

The internal assessments done by the schools in Classes XI and XII and the marks scored in the Class X board exams could be taken into consideration for preparing the Class XII results.

Students and parents are worried about the admission process in the absence of standardized evaluation and clarity on how the Class XII results will be prepared.  

Most universities in West Bengal admit students to undergraduate courses in several subjects on the basis of Class XII board marks. Entrance tests are conducted on some popular conventional subjects that are in demand every year. Admission tests are also held in certain emerging subjects in which the seats are limited. In some years, students would score very high marks in a particular subject. The universities decide to have   entrance tests on such subjects for that particular year because of fewer seats.

According to the vice-chancellors, they would inform the higher education department that their admission committees of the respective universities will examine these factors and start the planning in full swing.

“We can start our planning in full swing only when we get a clear picture of how the evaluations of Class XII students are to be done. The final strategy can be developed only after the publication of the Class XII board results,” the vice-chancellor of a university told EducationWorld who did not want to be named.

Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, vice-chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University said they have already sent the reply to the circular sent by the higher education department.

“Till 2020 we would admit students to our undergraduate courses in arts on the basis of Class XII board marks. The admissions to the fine arts and visual arts courses were held through entrance tests. As of now we are planning to follow the same. But, the final decision is subject to the ratification of our admission committee. The entrance tests which used to be held offline in normal situations will be conducted in virtual mode for the pandemic. We have informed this to the higher education department,” Basu Ray Chaudhuri told EducationWorld.

Also read: Visva Bharati to conduct Class X and XII exams 2021 online