Sorry, Your Lordships !!!

Admission to professional colleges in Kerala and all the protection of social justice will be back to square one in 2007, thanks to the most recent order of the Hon. High Court of Kerala striking down all important clauses of Act 19 of 2006, leaving behind a skeleton of the original Act. This act was intended not only to bring about some amount of social justice in an environment of commercialization and exploitation but to make everyone accountable by following a transparent procedure. One is baffled by the Hon. Court’s dictum that the much lauded single window system is an infringement on the rights of managements. In ruling that the managements could conduct their own entrance tests the Hon. High Court has turned a blind eye to realities.

Private professional colleges collect Capitation Fee (banned by many earlier orders of the Court) from every student. Managements usually do not call for applications through public notice, never specify a last date for application, do not maintain application registers, never prepare any rank list before admission because they simply do not need it. A person desirous of admission approaches the management (Principals are usually kept as scarecrows in the whole affair), bargains wherever possible, pays the capitation fee or donation or whatever else you may call it and secures an application form. Entrance test or no test, the candidate is assured of a seat in the specified branch. In Medical Colleges this amount runs to many lakhs while in Engineering the amount is lower, and depends on the branch, Electronics and Communication quoting the highest. Thus there will be exactly as many applicants as there are seats. They might even conduct an entrance test, but how does it matter if everyone passes? Unless he/she pays the capitation fee a meritorious candidate has no way of collecting an application form and getting enlisted as an applicant. There will be no evidence to show that his merit has been by-passed by money. In fact it was this "unfettered right” that the Act had curtailed and the Hon. Court order has now handed back to managements by dismantling the single window system. Who doesn’t know that their “management entrance test” is the biggest joke played on the public?

Hon. High Court has made an observation that private colleges give quality education that government colleges fail to do. Sorry Your Lordships, the facts tell a different story. Students and parents think that the government, Aided and Govt. Self financing colleges give them a better deal as testified by the rush of high rank holders to these colleges

Table below: 2005 Admission: Highest preferred colleges and the last rank of students admitted to Electronics and Communications Branch (First Round)

College, (Last rank in ECE Branch), Type

1. College of Engineering Trivandrum, (160) Govt.

2. Model Engg. College, Thrikkakkara (518) Govt. SF

3. TKM College Kollam (595) Aided

4. Govt.College of Engg. Trissur (697) Govt

5. M A College, Kothamangalam (787) Aided

6. RIT Kottayam (1505) Govt

7. Sree Chithra Trivandrum (1602) Govt. SF

8. Govt. Engineering College, Barton Hill, TVM (1613) Govt

9. NSS Engg College Palakkad (1766) Aided

10. College of Engg Chengannur (1958) Govt. SF

11. Rajagiri School of Engg & Tech., Ekm (2001) Private SF

12. Govt. Engg. College, Sreekrishnapuram, Palakkad (2357) Govt.

13 Govt. College of Engg. Kannur (2500) Govt.

14. University College of Engg, TVM (3154) Govt. SF

15. Institute of Technology for Women TVM (3191) Govt. SF

16. College of Engineering, Adoor (3474) Govt. SF

17. LBS College of Engineering, Kasaragod (4151) Govt. SF

18. Adi Sankara Inst. of Engg., EKM (4625) Private SF

19. College of Engineering, Munnar (4653) Govt. SF

In this list of 19 Engineering colleges which obviously were considered as top preference institutions, there are only Two Private Self-financing colleges. Somehow our lawyers failed to convince the court that Private self financing colleges do not enjoy the same credibility as the Government sector.

Any amount of data is available to prove that the entry of self financing colleges has caused a drop in the overall standards mainly due to the admission of undeserving candidates through money power. Although the total number of seats has increased many times the output of engineers in the state has increased only marginally, thanks to the enormous number of dropouts (35%) who would never complete their education. This wastage is mainly from the self financing sector.

Luckily Hon. High Court has not struck down the right of Government to maintain academic standards. The previous government, for reasons unknown to academics had reduced the minimum marks for entry (2006) from 50% to a mere pass in Plus Two. This, together with the “unfettered rights” of managements has brought in all kinds of young people to professional colleges. One need not wait until 2010 to know its consequences. Results of first year exams in various Universities will speak out eloquently.

Government is apparently contemplating an appeal in the Supreme Court. From the earlier verdicts it is clear that this would be a losing battle. Instead, a comprehensive law to be implemented in 2008 should be thought of. Meanwhile looking at the left over clauses of the Act the Government should immediately tighten up the academic requirements and ensure some amount of justice to aspiring candidates by doing the following:

1. Ensure that all aspiring students are able to buy the application form and get enlisted as a candidate without paying capitation fee or any part thereof.
2. All eligible applicants should be permitted to appear for the “Management Entrance Exam” and obtain a rank
3. Valuation of papers should be done without the influence of managements
4. A list of successful candidates should be published in the order of ranking.

Managements should be asked to publish the fee structure; any other underhand collection should be treated as a criminal offence. Whatever remains of the Act itself enables the Government to ensure this much.