A recent article in Times of India titled “Multiple entrance tests exhaust students, fill university coffers” by Dean of a reputed South Indian University is eye opener and if not acted upon will disrupt socio-economic fabric and increase inequality in the education system of our country.

After 10+2, students of our country writes many exams conducted by either CBSE or Private Universities. Examples of such examinations are:

Engineering Category: JEE Main, JEE Advanced, BITSAT, VITEEE, SRMJEEE, AMRITA EE, MANIPAL EE and many state level university entrance tests.

Medical Category: NEET UG, JIPMER, AIIIMS, SRM ME, MANIPAL ME, AMRITA ME and many state level University medical entrance.

Other Entrance Tests: NEST by NISER, IISER for IIIT admission, CLAT Law Entrance for Law graduation, ICAR Agriculture Course Entrance and many more.

While each of these tests demands minimum Rs.500 (Govt.) upto 2000 (Govt and Private) as entrance exam fees, a student has to incur a cost of 15,000 to 20,000 for attending various entrance tests across our country. Some Universities with less than 1000 seats to offer gets more than 2 lacs entrance application collecting 20 Crores in examination fee. They spend few lakhs in online test system by engaging Small private companies having 50/60 computers and inadequate testing environment. Some universities continues their test for 15 to 20 days continuously in these test centres for accomodating large number of students in small testing centres.

Some Private Universities charging Rs.2000/- for Engineering Admission with 3 to 4 campuses in India. The fees are not justified based on the number of seats they offer and the expenses incurred by them. This is a practice to get more money from entrance test rather than admission and teaching.

Even Government Organisations partnering with Private Software Companies charge hefty amount for national level entrance tests. For example CBSE NEET charges Rs.1400/- for GEN/OBC and Rs.750/- for SC / ST/ PH candidates for an one sitting exam of three hours.

Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) conducted by National Law Universities in India charges Rs.4000/- from one candidate to appear the entrance test. Is this high amount justified?

Many poor and middle class families in smaller towns and rural areas even can not afford these multiple entrance tests conducted by Government organisations whereas only affluent students can afford to pay the fees of multiple tests.

My appeal to Honourable MHRD Minister Shri. Prakash Javadekar to look into the issue and regulate either the number of entrance tests or maximum fees chargeable to students by any University.

To Support the petition, please sign it at Change.org

This petition will be delivered to: