[1]The myth that only urban students perform well in computer science and its related field has been busted with over 70-80 per cent of students from the rural districts of Dindigul, Karaikudi and Tiruchy clearing the first semester examinations conducted by Anna University recently.
Statistics provided by Anna University, Chennai, reveals that of the 7,090 students who appeared for fundamentals of computing and programming from Dindigul, 81.75 per cent cleared the examination, followed by 80.63 per cent in Karaikudi.
An average of 73.19 per cent students from Chennai passed the examination, which is less than the average of Dindigul, Karaikudi and Tiruchy districts.
Anna University vice-chancellor, Prof P. Mannar Jawahar, said there could be two reasons for this: either students are interested in the subject or there is increased awareness about the subject.
Former Anna University vice-chancellor, Prof. A. Kalanidhi, said nobody knows the rationale behind the state government scrapping the common entrance test for professional courses.
"The government said rural students are not able to cope with engineering education, so it scrapped CET, but now this result shows how well rural students have performed. So, why not we start entrance test again in the state?" he said.
Pointing out that the state government implemented CET as it felt rural students struggled to perform in interviews for admission, Prof Kalanidhi said when the state government says rural students find it difficult to prepare for CET for admission to undergraduate courses what is the need to conduct entrance test for postgraduate courses (Tamil Nadu common entrance test).
"Scrapping of CET is for political reasons and is not a knowledge-based reason," he added.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/20ruraljpgcropdisplayjpg-506