Sridhar D. Iyer
In the recent years the Central Government has taken steps to conduct several competitive exams on a national scale. This is a good thing since there is a level playing field for all students across the country. Since several years some of the exams are conducted on a clock-work precision for example the All India Engineering Entrance Exams and All India Pre-Medical Test. The HRD Ministry and CBSE-UGC hold competitive exams (NET, National Eligibility Test /SET, States Eligibility Test) for students who aspire to carry out doctoral thesis and/or join as teachers in colleges and universities. Since last year the exams were held twice a year but now there is a proposal to conduct it only once. The reasons provided are that the exams entail too much effort, expenses and that thousands of students do not appear even after having paid the application fees and after having obtained the exam hall ticket. Surely, these are not valid excuses because if the students do not appear the government stands to gain since that many papers are not evaluated and the application money of those students is forfeited.
There are certain exams such as IELTS (International English Language Testing System) and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) that are conducted 48 and 50 times, respectively in a year at thousands of centers in India! Some aspirants apply for and write these expensive exams (fees Rs.12,000) more than once if they fail or just to improve their marks.
In the fitness of things and as a welfare measure towards the students’ community, the HRD-UGC could consider holding the NET (Research and Lectureship and SET exams) on a regular basis say every 3-4 months. This is because thousands of students who graduate and have no job avenue would seriously prepare for the exams. Also hundreds of students who fail to qualify in the exams by 1 or 2 marks than the required threshold need not wait for a whole year to re-appear in the exams. The authorities would be doing a yeoman service to the students, parents and teachers if they conduct the competitive exams in a regular interval and not once in a year.
Finally, the validity of the NET (Research) exam result need to be increased from the present 2 to 4 years. This would give more time for the students to formulate a good doctoral proposal, search for a University /Institute and contact an apt guide for the work.
