Due to the peculiar pandemic situation, the state government decided to cancel the Class 12 examinations or promoted the students based on different criteria.
The High Court of Karnataka has taken up the hearing on KCET 2022 ranks and repeaters issue at 3:55 PM. However, no concrete decision has been taken again, and the matter has been posted for further hearing. The matter of KCET 2022 has been listed as Item No. 69 in Cause List 1. The court has taken up the hearing as per the serial number. The candidates can check the latest live updates of the KCET 2022 hearing here.
What is KCET?
The Karnataka Common Entrance Test or KCET is conducted by Karnataka Examination Authority and is a gateway for candidates to get admission to undergraduate various technical courses every year. Taking admission in BTech, B Arch, BSC agriculture and BPharma offered by various government/ private aided/ UN- Aided professional education institutions in the state of Karnataka will have to take this entrance exam for admission.
- KEA Karnataka Examination Authority is the nodal agency for examining professional courses.
- Admissions take place based on the ranking which is determined by 50% of the marks obtained by the candidates in physics chemistry biology and 50% of the marks obtained in the CET examination.
Changes in CET 2021:
In 2021, due to the pandemic, the government decided to cancel the +2 examination and promoted the students based on their internal assessment or different criteria. Following this KEA has decided to conduct the CET and evaluate the rankings based on a 100% CET score, as against the usual norm for the academic year 2021-2022. However, candidates were allotted seats in various institutions based on their respective CET rankings determined by CET scores.
CET examination Controversy in 2022:
In 2022 authority published information while inviting applications from students for CET that was held in June-July. That information stated eligibility for engineering and technology courses or decided by the usual norm of considering equal weightage from QE score and CET score. The authority directed the students to upload their scores of the qualifying examination while applying for the CET examination.
On July 30 KEA announced the CET result in which a total of 2,10,829 candidates had appeared for the exam, out of which close to 24000 candidates of CET 2021 had taken the exam for the second time in 2022. Although, KEA evaluated the CET rankings for re-rankers only based on a 100% CET score, for the freshers it will calculate based on the equal weightage of QE and CET scores.
The argument of (KEA) Karnataka Examination Authority:
The executive director of the Karnataka Examination Authority Ramya S argued that if they were to consider equal weightage of QE and CET scores or repeaters to evaluate their CET rankings, it would be wrong with the 2021 CET candidates and 2022 CET freshers.
But now, KEA also stated that if a CET candidate of 2021 re-appeared for the examination even in 2023, 2024, or 2025 then, their evaluation will be done the same as the criteria set for the said year, which is based on 100% CET score
The authority also highlighted some facts regarding the repeaters that the internal assessment was not considered for CET rankings for 2021. Similarly, for students who did not take the qualifying examination which was not conducted during 2022, the said internal assessment marks obtained for class 12 would not be considered for the academic year also.
On the day when CET results were announced, the KEA issued an order that the QE score would not be considered for evaluating the rankings of CET repeaters.
What do the re-rankers say?
The re-rankers argued over their rankings that have drastically changed or dropped following the unfair evaluation. Those rankers who had ranks under 10,000 ended up with the ranks this year in 2022. Some students took a gap of year for preparing well in the CET rankings and secure a seat in a good college. Also, some of them took a year off to study for NEET and kept this exam as an option.
They argued that there’s no notification mentioned or order that PUC marks would not be considered. This made them take CET again to better their ranking. He said, I ended up with a rank of over 1 lakh with a CET score of 72 but the last year it was 65 and had a ranking that would be higher than 42000. With a high ranking of over 1 lakh, how am I supposed to get admission to a good college?
HC verdict on the CET controversy:
Most of the repeaters filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court in August, seeking a 50-50 weightage of QE and CET scores for the CET ranking. Krishna Kumar the justice allowed the petitions on September 3 that is filed by the repeaters and also directed the authorities to conduct the CET ranking by considering 50% of QE and 50 % of CET scores for the re-rankers.
Fresher’s point on KCET:
A KCET fresher name Aditya Biradar started an online petition against the HC verdict and said students from the state board are more considered and got their board marks without writing any sort of written exam, which will affect freshers’ CET rankings.
Another fresher who ranked 24443 said that the decision is disappointing because after the revaluation my rank might go up by a thousand points but I am tense and will get a clear picture after the revaluation is done. Although, I might take admissions through CET ranking rather than COMEDK (Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka ranking) “.
One more fresher said with the redoing of the entire CET rankings, will only further damage the academic prospects of the freshers. Abhishek D, rankings might go up by thousands of points also not good in college. He aims to pursue computer science engineering with the current ranking if his ranking is changed then he opted Mechanical engineering which has very low career opportunities.
Government Stand on the CET:
Higher Education Minister Dr. C N Aswath Narayan, says that on Monday it will be announced that the government would be challenging the HC order. This will change drastically the ranks of the freshers and would be unfair to them.
The head of the Karnataka Education Authority Ramya also expresses views that usually witness around 2000-3000 repeaters every year during the CET examination. Although, this year the number is close to 24,000 which is higher than the last year. Government give the word that the counseling for CET will begin soon, following which classes would commence.