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No CUET coaching boom yet, but exam’s ‘inclusiveness’, impact on learning still in question

When CUET was introduced a year ago, there were fears coaching centres would reap biggest benefits. This hasn’t panned out yet, but there are signs it may just be a matter of time.

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New Delhi: When the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for central universities was announced last March, there were worries that it would feed into coaching culture and deprive marginalised students of fair competition. Nearly a year on, the coaching industry around CUET has had a slow start, but questions about the exam’s “inclusiveness” remain, as do concerns that it has degraded how students learn and study.

CUET was introduced for admission to central and state universities with lofty goals in mind. Undergraduate admissions earlier depended on students scoring enough in Class 12 board exams to meet college cut-offs. The new format aimed to level the playing field by giving only 40 per cent weightage to these exams — which are conducted by various boards — and prioritising students’ performance on a standardised test with multiple-choice questions.

While there were concerns that CUET would have students rushing to coaching centres to get an edge, this hasn’t panned out — not yet, at least.

ThePrint has found that several smaller coaching institutes in Delhi that forayed into CUET coaching have had to discontinue classes because of low enrollments. But some larger establishments are holding out hope for the 2023 edition of the exam.

Last year, with 14.9 lakh registrations, CUET UG 2022 became the second-largest national entrance exam in India, surpassing even the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering college admission.

Some coaching centres believe that CUET is a growth area for them, since many students appearing for medical or engineering entrance exams will also sign up for CUET as a backup option. Some even claimed they anticipated a five- to ten-fold increase in their enrollments.

Posters advertising CUET coaching classes | Credit: Soniya Agrawal | ThePrint

However, several students that ThePrint spoke to said that they did not feel the need to attend coaching classes since the National Testing Agency (NTA) —  the autonomous government body conducting the exam — had provided and adequate syllabus and mock tests on its website to prepare for the exam.

Nevertheless, the students who found the preparation “easy” tended to be relatively privileged, from urban areas, and proficient in English.

Some coaching professionals believe it can be harder for rural students to get a grip on the process of signing up and practicing for the exams. Further, the available study resources may not be equally accessible to all students.

Anurag Sharma, a former Delhi University (DU) ad hoc professor who now runs a political science-focused coaching centre, Net Crackers, claimed that the preparation materials for CUET fall short for students pursuing humanities subjects and that there is also a lack of quality content in regional languages.

Net Crackers coaching centre in Delhi’s Kalu Sarai | Credit: Soniya Agrawal | ThePrint

Another challenge in the first round of the exam was technical glitches and other issues at numerous test centres, resulting in the 2023-24 academic session being delayed in some universities.

In a written Rajya Sabha reply in December, Union minister of state for education Subhas Sarkar had said that 47,835 “grievances/complaints were received for rescheduling the date or centre of CUET (UG) Examination, and all such requests were considered and appropriate actions were taken.”

ThePrint has contacted NTA chairman Vineet Joshi over messages and calls to ask about the logistical improvements for the exam this year. This article will be updated when a response is received.

The University Grants Commission is expected to announce the dates for this year’s exam later this week.


Also read: From daily wager to academic chaos in Bihar to JNU via CUET, a student’s journey


A wait for CUET coaching boom

Delhi’s densely-packed Kalu Sarai neighbourhood is one of the city’s coaching hubs, with at least 20 centres currently operating out of here.

When CUET was announced, many of these centres were quick to jump on the bandwagon with new courses to help ace the test. A year on, many scrapped these classes because of lack of student turnout.

“Many of the institutes in this area teach science and related subjects, so it was easy for them to set up CUET coaching. However, post-pandemic recovery was slow and student enrollment did not meet their expectations, so they returned to their original subjects,” said Dr Avinash Chandra who teaches at the Phoenix Coaching Academy here.

This centre does not offer CUET classes, but Chandra’s previous place of employment did before dropping the course due to lack of uptake.

Coaching centres in Delhi’s Kalu Sarai | Credit: Soniya Agrawal | ThePrint

Some coaching institutes are playing a longer game and have an optimistic outlook, especially at a time when the UGC has said it is considering merging JEE and NEET (the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical college admissions) with CUET within the next couple of years.

Career Launcher, one of the first coaching centres to introduce a CUET module in 2022, is expecting a tenfold increase in enrollments this year, but only after the board exams are held.

“While there are only reports as of now, the JEE Main exam may be replaced by CUET in the coming years. CUET is definitely competing with the NEET and JEE prep industry, and in the next few years, it will surpass the two on a large scale,” said Amitendra Kumar, product head at Career Launcher.

Another opportunity for coaching institutes is offering subjects other than those related to science and commerce, which are available in abundance.

Anurag Sharma, quoted earlier, runs a coaching centre that specialises in political science.

He told ThePrint that 150 students enrolled in his classes last year. According to him, online coaching classes are affordable and useful for students from low-income backgrounds.

Sharma suggested that coaching could help level the playing field in some ways.

“There are no reference books in regional languages, and publishers have only sparingly ventured into Hindi translations. In addition, many state boards do not cover the depth of different theories, while the CBSE syllabus requires students to read in depth,” he explained.

Students from rural areas are at an even greater disadvantage, he added.

“They are not only unaware of college/university specialisations and choices, but they also need counselling on how to fill out forms,” Sharma said.

He charges Rs 15,000 for a three-month online course in political science.

In ‘coaching capital’ Kota, Kamal Singh Chauhan heads the CUET division at a centre called Resonance, one of the few that offers dedicated packages for the exam. He said that even students who aspired to study in medical or engineering colleges could take the exam as a “backup plan” in case they didn’t rank well.

“Most of the students who got low ranks in JEE would usually end up in some unknown private engineering college and still have to pay a high fee for a BTech degree. Instead, they can appear for CUET UG and get admitted to BTech courses in well-known central universities like DU and BHU (Banaras Hindu University),” he said. “In some central universities, students can complete their BTech degree for less than Rs 50,000 (for 4 years).”

Chauhan’s institute offers coaching in 15 subjects and recently hired new faculty for humanities courses, he said.

‘Easy prep’ — but not for all

For students in urban areas, preparing for CUET is not a particularly arduous task. Many said that reliable internet, mock papers, and some hard work could get the job done.

Ipsita Sahoo, a Class 12 student in a Delhi government school, also said that her teachers have provided her with the resources she needs to prepare for CUET.

“Along with preparing for our board exams, our teachers also hold doubt-solving sessions to help us to get ready for any type of question. The syllabus is available online, so we know what to study,” she said.

Sahoo, who aspires to become a Reserve Bank of India officer, claimed that her teachers have been preparing her for competitive exams for the last two years.

Another student who appeared for the exam last year and got admission at DU’s Daulat Ram College said on condition of anonymity, “We thought the exam would be difficult, but with all the information available online, the biggest challenge was the logistical aspect. The syllabus was straightforward and the questions were easy. Anyone with good internet access can prepare for it on their own.”

However, for students like Anurag Kumar, who lives in a village near Bihar capital Patna,  preparing for CUET is not such a breeze. He wants to study political science in college but feels that he and others in his milieu are at a disadvantage because of their background and the language barrier.

“We have to constantly seek support and often end up paying large sums of money for coaching. We don’t know what colleges to apply to, or what our options are besides universities like DU and JNU,” he said.

Beginning of the end for Class 12?

Kanpur-based Nitesh Mishra, the father of a Class 11 student, is a little confused about his son’s education. He’s not sure whether to enroll him for Class 12 tuition or for CUET coaching.

“Everyone has a different opinion, but as of now, I am pushing him to focus on his board examinations,” Mishra said.

Other parents have made different choices.

Sudha Acharya, chairperson of the National Progressive School Conference (NPSC), an association of 122 Delhi schools, said that some parents had devalued school learning.

“I am getting requests from parents to withdraw their wards from the school. They say since Class 12 marks will now only hold 40 per cent weightage, they want to enroll their children in open schools and have them focus on CUET preparation instead,” she said.

Such issues reflect a growing concern among educationists that the focus on cracking CUET is detracting from students’ learning in school and compromising their ability to write long answers. Further, with the reduced weightage given to Class 12 results, students have less of an incentive to master the school syllabus.

A December 2022 white paper by the education-focused not-for-profit organisation FICCI Arise stated that the emphasis on CUET could turn schools into veritable coaching centres.

“CUET is further deprioritising board examinations and exposing schools to become irrelevant in a student’s academic life. Schools may be forced to convert themselves into coaching centers, training students on MCQ-type questions, just to ensure attendance,” the paper says. 

To avert such an outcome, the paper suggested alternative methods of assessment, including reading and writing assignments, language tests, extra-curricular performance, and other metrics that highlight a student’s progress and achievements in school.

(Edited by Asavari Singh)


Also read: Why Indian parents are shifting kids to govt schools, but spending more on private tutors


 

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