Delhi University’s admission process is catching heat. The administration received more than 59,000 applications on the final day of admissions for the first cut-off list. In spite of a strict 100 percent cut-offs for some courses this year, students from Kerala are dominating the admission process.
Students from Kerala dominate DU admissions
3 out of 10 courses with a 100 percent cut-off, closed their admission processes on October 6, 2021. Out of 206 students admitted under the unreserved category, more than 95 percent of them have studied from the Kerala state board of education. This has left everyone astounded.
Out of 28 states and 8 union territories, a state capturing 95 percent of seats in admission is indicative of either an extreme efficiency or something corrosive. The Kerala state board uses the average of both class 11’s and class 12’s marks, to award final results to its students. On the other hand, Delhi University offers seats based on the marks of class 12, only. Due to these rules, the students from Kerala have a massive advantage in DU’s admission process, coupled with the fact that the Kerala state board has a tendency to mark students more liberally in class 12.
Moreover, the Kerala administration has taken a student-friendly approach to examinations this year. This year’s result saw 502 students scoring 100 percent in 12th compared to 234 in 2021. Similarly, 47,881 students scored above 90 percent marks with a majority of them in the above 95 percent category, compared to 18,510 last year.
Educationalists raise eyebrows
A teacher from Ramjas College said– “When you look at the mark sheet of a Kerala Board student who has done well in the Board results, you will notice that she, in all likelihood, would have scored 100% in most subjects in Class 12 and not Class 11. However, since we only consider the Class 12 performance, several Kerala Board students who haven’t scored full marks in their overall Board results are eligible to take admission in DU programs with 100% cutoff,”.
A teacher from Hindu college raised this discrepancy and also advocated for a level-playing ground for students from all state boards. He asked for the inclusion of class 11 results of Kerala board students, in the final calculation of their marks to be considered for admission. The DU administration after a brief meeting, decided to continue the criteria of including only class 12 marks for admission.
Physics professor calls it marks-jihad
Meanwhile, looking at the high number of students flocking from the communist state in DU, Rakesh Pandey, a physics professor from Kirori Mal College, has coined the phrase ‘marks-jihad’, for this discrepancy. He alleged a ‘Leftist-jihadi conspiracy’ behind it. He also added that there has been infiltration of students from Kerala since the past few years. Furthermore, he disclosed that most of these students are unable to communicate clearly in English and Hindi.
Pandey, a former president of the National Democratic Teachers Front also alleged that the way JNU was captured by Keralites, DU may face a similar fate. He said, “This is an organised missionary-type development. They want to come here and spread their jihadi and Leftist propaganda. Kerala has been a hotbed of jihadi and Leftist activities, so this is a perfect way for them to spread their ideology,”
Read more: In Communist Kerala, Churches decide to silence voices against Love Jihad and Narcotics Jihad
India is not a one-size-fits-all country, how can admission process be?
India is a diverse country with each state having its own curriculum and methodology for teaching. In fact, the process of internal assessment and setting of question papers is different, for different states. All these processes combined with different criteria for awarding marks create a huge gap in the final result of students from different boards. Due to these variations, a student securing 80 percent in ICSE board or 70 percent in Bihar Board for instance, get ousted from the admission process, despite being more meritorious than Kerala board students getting 100 percent marks.
To bring uniformity in the admission process, Delhi University needs to make their own admission test, which should be designed in such a way that it does not end up favouring one state over the other. This is important, so that all students get equal opportunities to enroll in higher education course; this can further ensure that none of the deserving candidates lose out on such opportunities, thereby resulting in polished quality minds in the future.