VISAKHAPATNAM: The practical exams of the Intermediate courses (10+2) will again be conducted this year in a non-jumbling model, which means that the students will show up for the practical exams at the end of the year at the same university where they study.
About 4.8 million students take these exams, which start from February 26, Sunday, to March 7. Since the EAPCET (Andhra Pradesh’s Engineering Qualification Test) has a 25 percent weighting for intermediate grades, the practical exams have gained importance. There have been allegations against several corporate colleges that they have engaged in various misconduct in order to get 100% grades for their students. It is often claimed that they only focus on academics, rather than imparting knowledge to students through hands-on practice, which is critical to excellence in engineering and medicine.
The Ministry of Education ran the jumbling model practical exams for a few years until 2020, requiring students to take the exams at another institution. In fact, in 2020 even the faculty and directors were reshuffled and reassigned duties at other centers. But the state reverted to the undisturbed model from the 2022 trials following a court order.
Citing undue preferential treatment of grades and misleading institutions, the Prof. Dayaratnam Committee advocated the muddle system in undivided Andhra Pradesh as early as 2005. But even after several feasibility studies, it had not been implemented by the 2017 exam. The jumbling model seemed to have worked to a certain extent, as students, particularly from some of the corporate colleges who had never been to labs, were surprised by the practical exams administered in the jumbling model during those years. For example, about 300 students from various Visakhapatnam corporate colleges failed to complete their internships in the 2018 exams. 2017 was the worst year for some private college students when the jumbling model was first introduced, as these students were left at the mercy of regulators. One day before the 2017 exams, those responsible had campaigned intensively for the Jumbling to be postponed, but in vain.
Regional inspector P Uma Rani said students will not be allowed into examination centers if they are even a minute late. “The exams will be conducted under CCTV surveillance. The feed will be sent for online streaming from the office of the Central Intermediate Authority,” Uma Rani said.
