How CUET democratized admission in Delhi University

Delhi University UG Admission CUET: In India, social and economic inequality is the foremost hurdle in the way of nation building. The significance for equalization of educational opportunities/ facilities has been illuminated ever since Independence in 1947. The legendary academician and former President of India, Dr. S Radhakrishnan echoed a similar view and proposed, “Education is one the effective means through which any society can strive for social equality or at least make an effort to reduce social inequalities among their members.” The aforementioned outlook has also been incorporated in the report of the Indian Education Commission, 1964-66, which reads, “One of the important social objectives of education is to equalize opportunity, enabling the backward or underprivileged classes and individuals to use education as a lever for the improvement of their condition. Every society that values social Justice and is anxious to improve the lot of the common man and cultivate all available talent must ensure progressive equality of opportunity to all sections of the population. This is the only guarantee for the building up of an egalitarian and human society in which the exploitation of the weak will be minimized.”

Differential Standard of Educational Institutions

The traditional practice of enrolling students in the premiere educational institutes has been far from meeting the aforementioned vision. The previous admission procedure adopted by the famous University of Delhi in particular has been contrary to the idea of equity. Prior to CUET 2022, the admission criteria were based on the scores of the intermediate board exam results. Apparently, rendering the process inclined towards the students of cosmopolitan areas.

Revolution promulgated by CUET

The Common University Entrance Test (CUET (UG) – 2022 is being pioneered for admission into all Under-graduate courses in the Central Universities from the academic session 2022-23. The move is seen as a watershed in ensuring equalization of educational opportunities in premiere educational institutions across India. CUET will promulgate a revolution of social justice for students from the rural and other remote areas. As an outcome, a common platform is made available to the candidates across the country, through a centralized single examination module, enabling a wider outreach of the admissions process to various Central Universities.

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Delhi University Admission arrangement prior to CUET

Antecedent to the nudge of CUET the admission to the University of Delhi was mostly dominated by the two most prominent national boards alongside few of the state boards. As per a feature published in the Indian Express, “Last year, 59,199 of the 71,748 admissions were from the CBSE board, with Haryana Board at 2470, followed by CISCE at the third place with 2389 admissions.”

However, contrary to the previous year’s standings this year has witnessed humongous change. The aforementioned change owes it to the new schematic policy change of CUET which takes into account the entrance test scores instead of the Class XII board exam scores.

It is to say that the state education boards of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh amongst others which were earlier not appropriately represented in the admission list have witnessed an upsurge. The 2022 tally illustrates CBSE Board on the top, followed by ISC, Bihar Board, UP Board, Rajasthan Board, amongst others.

However, it is glaring to note that the DU teacher’s previous year’s remark regarding ‘marks jihad’ by Kerala school board students cannot be refuted as bizarre following the recent admission trends as the tally of Kerala Board has fallen to the seventh place from the previous fourth spot. Consequently, the greatest perk of CUET 2022 is to ensure equality of opportunity in education. That is to say, the most prominent prerequisite to ensure the egalitarian and democratic values are being brought back into the academic landscape of the nation.