The State government has announced that all admissions to engineering colleges in Goa will be based on the JEE Main exam from the academic year 2024-25, and the Goa Common Entrance Test (GCET) will be stopped.
The decision to onboard national-level competitive exams is welcome, but the timing is questionable. The government’s timeline of switching from 2024-25 comes as a rude shock to Std XI students, who will have to cover up for half of the academic year that is already lost. JEE Main exam combines Std XI and XII syllabus and involves negative marking, unlike the GCET. For those familiar with GCET and its objectivity, the JEE Main is highly competitive and a completely different ball game.
Agreed that it would still be okay for Goan students seeking to pursue engineering in State colleges because their admission will be on a different scale, but the intended purpose of switching to JEE Main is lost if students are looking at these exams from such a narrow perspective.
The aim of these national-level entrance exams was to give Goan students better exposure and explore opportunities at IITs and other professional colleges. The objective, however, cannot be fulfilled by shallow thinking. A random announcement introducing JEE to Goan students without considering the more significant implications on students and a lack of orientation exposes the hollowness of decisions. Therefore, while deciding to introduce JEE, there should be an inclusive plan in place so that students are oriented from as early as Std 8th, the way it is done in other states.
With JEE entering the system, the focus completely shifts to private coaching classes. The downside is that not all students may afford the fees charged by private institutes, and there is no option. The education department should have an ecosystem in place with a trained resource to groom students along this part instead of overtly relying on private players. The current plan will only promote and benefit the private coaching institutes over which the government has no regulatory control.
While an announcement is made, there has been no application of mind over the decision’s impact on students, especially from the weaker sections or economically backward classes. The new system will deny them an opportunity because of non-affordability. Guidance becomes crucial for these national-level exams because students are often trapped between the curriculum of their academic year and the syllabus of the competitive exam. There is no coherence.
While there should have been at least a gap of two full academic years, if not more, before switching over, the State government should have created a system within the existing schooling structure to groom students from an early age. Exposing students to JEE Main is a good idea; it has its merits and will widen the horizons among Goans. It will also provide better exposure where students will be challenged to aim higher. There are takeaways here, but all of this is meaningless if there is no ready platform ready to onboard that system. The students are left to fend for themselves in a highly competitive pool.
