Admissions to engineering schools of Lucknow: For almost twenty years, Civil Engineering School Lucknow had full freedom for framing rules and procedures for selection and admission of students to the overseer’s certificate course run by it. The management of Civil Engineering School Lucknow had earmarked ten seats for the admission of nominees of donors and five seats as discretionary seats for admission of students according to the wishes and desires of the members of the management. The remaining seats were left to be filled in by the principal on the basis of merit, in accordance with the criteria put in place by the principal with the approval of the management. The arrangement was working smoothly without any problems or hassles. Similarly, Hewett Engineering School Lucknow had all the freedom about selection and admission of students. After the affiliation of Civil Engineering School Lucknow and Hewett Engineering School Lucknow to Adhoc Board of Technical Education Roorkee, the Board directed the two Lucknow schools to conduct a joint entrance examination for the selection and admission of students to their institutions, from considerations of uniformity, transparency and academic excellence. We had all the freedom to frame rules and regulations for the conduct of the joint examination, for issuing advertisements for admissions, choosing and finalizing centres for the conduct of entrance examination and for putting in place all the modalities for appointing examiners, printing papers, supervision of examination centres, examining answerbooks and finally tabulating and declaring results.
Joint entrance examination: A joint committee was constituted for the conduct of common examination for selection and admission of students to overseer’s certificate courses of Civil Engineering School Lucknow and Hewett Engineering School Lucknow for the session commencing in July 1954. I was nominated to the committee as the representative of Civil Engineering School and Vice Principal of Hewett Engineering School was nominated as their representative. We agreed to work jointly for proper conduct of the entrance examination, but at the same time, we agreed to develop a system, so that, we do not tread on each others toes to ensure that the basic interests and freedom of the institutions is not compromised. An advertisement was issued and the applicants were given the freedom to submit applications to any one of the two schools. Thereafter, the applications were pooled and a common roll list was prepared. Four papers were chosen for the entrance examination covering subjects of English, mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. There was an examiner and a co-examiner for each paper shared equally by the two institutions. There were three centres for the conduct of the examinations. Two centres were at Lucknow, one in each institution. The third centre was kept at Meerut for the convenience of aspiring students from west UP. Two observers were sent to Meerut centre, one from each institution. Valuation of the answerbooks was done in the institutions at Lucknow and final merit list was prepared and call letters were issued. On The date of admission, the candidates were called one by one on the basis of merit, based on marks obtained in the entrance examination and were provided full freedom to opt for which ever institution they preferred to join. There were no reservations and management or donors quota and consequently, it was the beginning of a new chapter in the academic functioning of the two Lucknow schools.
Special batch of 1954: First five year plan of the country had been launched and there was sudden spurt in development activities in all sectors of the economy. There was tremendous shortage of technical manpower of almost all types and at all levels, everywhere. Those were the conditions, when Civil Engineering School Lucknow was permitted to recruit a special batch of 30 students for overseers certificate course in civil engineering in October 1954. The minimum qualification for purposes of admission was kept as B.Sc with Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. The advertisement was issued and admissions were made on the basis of marks obtained in B.Sc in mathematics, physics and chemistry. The students were mature and with their background of mathematics, physics and chemistry at a higher level, they were able to cover up the lag of three months comfortably and gradually rose to the top of the order after completion of examinations of first year in May 1955 and that of second year in May 1956. Their performance raised some obvious questions. If the students, who join the overseers certificate courses after completing intermediate or B.Sc with mathematics, physics and chemistry are better suited for the course during their studies in the institution and afterwards during their assignments in the field, why not provide to them a preferential treatment in the selections for admission to overseers certificate courses.
Common practices for selection and admission: In the good old days, doors were open and almost everybody was welcome. The urge to learn was the right to learn. First come first serve was the norm. However, it worked as long as the number of candidates was not large. When the numbers multiplied, minimum qualifications, physical fitness and age were prescribed for purposes of short listing and preparation of merit lists. Thereafter, the marks obtained in the qualifying examination turned out to be the most convenient criteria. It held sway for decades. Subseqently, when the number of institutions multiplied, the candidates started submitting separate applications to the institutions of their choice and were found running from one institution to another for selection. That gave rise to joint written examinations for a group of institutions.The system is in vogue now for almost all prestigious institutions for all India competitions, as also in the states for state level competitions. Since the number of seats is limited as compared to the number of applicants, the competition and the examinations linked with those competitions have become very tough. It is very difficult for a student to get through, without proper preparation for the examinations. Gradually, the examinations have become preparation oriented and a large number of established and mushroom coaching centres have come up in almost every town. The advantage to the institutions is that they are able to get the best performers as also the students hardened by the rigorous preparation for one or two years for the entrance examinations. The fall out is that some of the best and talented students, who do not have the time or resources to undertake coaching for a reasonable period, find it difficult to get in.
Conclusion: It is never realized, that, whatever be the criteria for selection, ultimately all methods are arbitrary. What matters is the man, not the tag attached to him. There are a number of prestigious institutions, who are able to recruit the best stuff and then they turn out 90% of them as mediocres. Whereas, there are a number of institutions, who feel satisfied to get the students from the lowest rung and with motivation and dedication, they are able to push them up the ladder.