Opinion The 100 per cent alarm

The high cut-offs are the inevitable consequence of three underlying causes. First,there is a widening demand-supply mismatch. India has a large and growing population of young people of college-going age. With growing incomes,the affordability of college education has risen; there has been an increase in the aspirational levels amongst young school-leavers and amongst their parents,who quite frequently try to realise the unfulfilled dreams of their youth through their children. There has also been a structural shift in the demand towards colleges located in metropolitan cities,especially in Delhi,since many formerly good institutions under the control of state governments have suffered serious erosion in quality standards.

Some cynics might wonder whether students have an irrational preference for a handful of colleges. What matters is the popular perception. As long as a sufficiently large number of good students and members of faculty continue to join a so-called “reputed” institution,the reputation will be self-perpetuating. The alumni will continue to do well and this,by itself,will continue to attract good students in future.

Unfortunately,state policy on expansion of higher education in India works in fits and starts,is characterised by apathy alternating with political expediency,and decades of stagnation are followed by overnight doubling or tripling of the number of IITs,IIMs and Central universities. It is not surprising that these new institutions are not able to attract competent faculty and bright students who are at par with their established counterparts,because so many of them start competing for them simultaneously. Thus the number of institutions that provide quality education in India is at best stagnant.

In St Stephen’s College,for instance,the total number of seats in economics honours has actually declined from 80 in the early 1980s to 50 now,and the extent of reservation has gone up from about 20 per cent to 60 per cent. As a result,the number of “general category” seats has actually shrunk from over 60 to exactly 20 now! Not surprisingly,the admission cut-offs have zoomed. As a matter of fact,concerned about the rising cut-offs,last year,St Stephen’s requested the University of Delhi to increase the number of seats in some disciplines. The file still lies buried somewhere in the university hierarchy.

The allocation of a fixed or declining number of highly valued seats amongst an ever rising number of aspirants is bound to give rise to shortages and rationing. The primary rationing mechanism is Class 12 marks.

This brings us to the second reason for exploding cut-offs. If Class 12 marks are to be used,the least one would expect from such a unit of measurement is that it should be stable. What good is a yardstick that keeps on stretching in your hands? Further,a yardstick,to be useful,should give different measurements for objects of different lengths; if there is not much dispersion amongst marks,board marks lose value as a sifting device. When I left school,only exceptional students got 80 per cent. This magic percentage increased to 85 per cent,then to 90 per cent,and a few years back it reached 95 per cent. This year,several thousand students have obtained over 95 per cent marks in Class 12. With grade inflation from the CBSE,ISC and other boards,ever rising cut-offs are only to be expected.

The increase in first-list cut-offs is somewhat exaggerated due to the recent,ill-conceived policy of the University of Delhi to do away with pre-admission application forms,asking the colleges instead to announce the cut-offs in the absence of any data — along with a direction to admit all students with marks above the announced cut-off. If the colleges fix cut-offs too high,the consequences are not disastrous: they can always lower them in the next list. If,however,the cut-offs are fixed too low,the colleges would be stuck with students far in excess of their intake capacity. The colleges,quite rationally,erred on the side of caution.

The third and final reason is the use of Class 12 marks as the sole criterion for admissions. Everybody realises how imperfect the examination and marking systems are. The statistical correlation of board marks with ability of any kind,except perhaps the ability to pay for coaching classes,has declined over time. Everybody who has had anything to do with the field of education realises that there can’t be a single measure of ability that will suffice for all disciplines. Yet,we continue to rely on board marks as the sole determinant of admissions to all courses,because the alternatives are far too complicated or might give rise to fears of manipulation and favouritism.

But the time has come to change that. The university should seriously consider a two-stage procedure. Use board marks as a crude screening device to limit the number of applicants it wants to consider: fix a reasonable percentage in board marks to make candidates eligible to appear in a subject-specific aptitude test,and then use a weighted average of board marks and score in the aptitude test to come up with a composite score that can be used by colleges to offer slots to students.

Subject-specific aptitude tests constitute only a short-term solution,though,to the problem of dealing with shortages of opportunities for quality higher education. The long-term solution can only be to have colleges like SRCC,LSR and St Stephen’s in every state,if not district,of the Indian Union.

The writer teaches economics at St Stephen’s College,Delhi,express@expressindia.com