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Policy Watch No.3

Reservation in Educational Institutions: Who Gains from Abolishing the Common Entrance Test (CET) in Tamil Nadu

At a time when the need for and effectiveness of a Common Entrance Test (CET) to professional colleges is debated across the country, The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy’s third Policy Watch looks at the working of the professional college admissions system. It studies the efficiency of the implementation of affirmative action policies in Tamil Nadu’s professional education institutions to meet the underlying social justice objectives by looking at the mechanism used to determine admissions to these courses. This analysis points out that the abolition of the CET in Tamil Nadu has benefitted students from the Other Communities and the Backward Classes more than those from other socially deprived classes, such as the Most Backward Classes, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The solution to work out an efficient affirmative action policy, according to the author, lies in reorienting both the school education system and the CET mechanism.

At a time when the need for and effectiveness of a Common Entrance Test (CET) to professional colleges is debated across the country, The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy’s third Policy Watch looks at the working of the professional college admissions system.

It studies the efficiency of the implementation of affirmative action policies in Tamil Nadu’s professional education institutions to meet the underlying social justice objectives by looking at the mechanism used to determine admissions to these courses.

This analysis points out that the abolition of the CET in Tamil Nadu has benefitted students from the Other Communities and the Backward Classes more than those from other socially deprived classes, such as the Most Backward Classes, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The solution to work out an efficient affirmative action policy, according to the author, lies in reorienting both the school education system and the CET mechanism.

(The writer is Associate Professor of Econometrics, University of Madras, and former member of the State Planning Commission, Tamil Nadu. He can be reached at [email protected]).

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