31/05/2015
Farook College was one of the 11 countrywide centres of Aligarh Muslim University’s M.B.B.S and B.D.S Entrance Examination. 3939 candidates appeared for the examination conducted at 6 institutions on the campus. However, it is only lamentably that we came to know the result of the examination being withheld simply because more candidates from Kerala centre, compared with the pass percentage of other states of the country, have qualified the examination. This is purely based on a wrong and prejudiced comparison of Kerala students with those from other states and a blatant disregard of the academic competence of Kerala students. According to the official statistics of the last year, Kerala has put in 60% of the candidates who qualified the CBSE National Entrance Examination and admitted to various medical colleges across the country. The premier institution of medical education, AIMS too is not an exception for Kerala students who make more than 50% of total seats in different AIMSs. Out of 360 medicos of the topmost AIMS, Delhi, 97 (27%) are hailing from Kerala. The admission record of Kerala students for the last five years in Delhi AIMS is 18%, 23.6%, 38.9%, 34.7% and 19.44% respectively. Moreover, of 10 members of its Students’ Union, 9 represent Kerala. In 2014 admission to AIMS, Bhuvanveshar, 41 out 100 were Keralites.
The amazing hike in the number of Keralites from 17 to 57 in the respective years of 2012 and 2013 was on the news and newspapers like Times of India had reported it. Analogous to the present event, AIMS, Delhi also was suspicious of 25 Keralites qualifying the AIMS Entrance Examination four years ago. Consequently, AIMS did not allot examination centre in Kerala the next year, but the history repeated with 28 medicos. It is also to be noticed that the sweeping success in the CBSE Plus Two examination, including the first and second ranks is created again by Keralites who also might have appeared for the Aligar Muslim University Entrance Examination. Farook College is the sole examination centre ever since Kerala was allotted one and usually it is conducted in 6 institutions on the campus. AMU has no examination centres in the neighbouring states like Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Goa. To keep the confidentiality of the examination, no details of the candidates such as the number of candidates, name, place, state are shared with the centre.
Initially, the college was asked to accommodate 3000 students to appear for the test. After a week, it was informed that there will be 4200 students due to the hike in the applicants. A group of ten teachers from the University came to the college on April 25, a day before the examination. They brought with them the sheets containing the details of the applicants, documents to get signed by the students and the stickers with the roll number to be pasted on the desk. Prior to that, no details of the candidates were informed to the centre. The booklets and OMR sheets reached the centre only by the noon and they were received by the representatives of the university. All the documents were kept and locked in the strong room which was also done by the university officials. On the day of examination, the room was opened and the documents were taken out by them. The university sends separate sealed covers for each examination hall and the question booklets are opened only in the respective halls. Rare enough, the photographs of each student holding the hall ticket are also taken. The examination is conducted by the University representatives. The centre only extends all the help required by them.
The move to cancel the test conducted in this centre and to go for the retest only for the applicants from Kerala is a fruit of a wicked design and sheer injustice. A retest would prove the excellence of Keralites once again, if it is conducted for all applicants. It is also demanded that if necessary, there can be three or four centres in Kerala. For many years Farook College has been facilitating the major entrance tests including J.E.E, A.I.P.M.T, A.C.I.R, U.G.C and GATE in a foolproof way and no grievances have been reported so far.
Aligarh Muslim University officials should identify the hidden agenda of the north Indian lobbies to deny opportunities to the students from Kerala and should take immediate measures to ensure justice to the students who have appeared for the exam. They should also take action to restore the image of Farook College which has been the centre of examination, since the scandal will bring disgrace to our college and will tarnish its reputation.
