Jadavpur University authorities on Wednesday announced the dates of admission tests for undergraduate Arts faculty departments.
There was assurance that external examiners won’t be involved in the test (the respective faculty members will conduct admission tests). Also, teachers were relieved to know that the papers wouldn’t comprise multiple choice questions (MCQ), which, they feel is inadequate to evaluate a student’s interest and merit in humanities.
This is a victory for teachers and students of JU — who have been upset and worried about the university authorities’ efforts to change a tried and tested evaluation system — the admission tests. The students called off their hunger strike last night after the announcement on bringing back admission tests. They were on an indefinite hunger strike demanding admission tests instead of board examination results being the only criterion for admission.
Earlier, on June 27, the Jadavpur University authorities had decided to give 50:50 weightage to class 12 results and admission tests. But later, there was a decision to scrap admission tests altogether. Yesterday, at an emergency meeting of the Executive Committee — which was called urgently as the students were already on the fourth day of hunger strike — a decision was taken to restore the earlier decision to implement the 50:50 assessment pattern.
Admission test dates are as follows:
English: July 21; Bengali: July 23, Comparative Literature and Philosophy: July 24; History and International Relations: July 25.
