Entrance tests to go: Calcutta
Tribune News Service

PATIALA, Nov 19 — Punjab Higher Education Minister Manjit Singh Calcutta today said entrance tests would be phased out in all universities and colleges in the state.

Talking to newsmen after attending the "Khalsa tercentenary celebrations" seminar at Punjabi University here, he said all universities had been directed to give weightage to their ex-students during admission to various courses this year.

The universities by denying weightage to their own degrees had started a vicious circle. While the authorities earned money for holding the tests and the teachers for checking the papers, their own students were the losers.

Mr Calcutta said a report had been prepared regarding research being conducted by various chairs of higher learning instituted in Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and Punjabi University following complaints that research work was not being done properly.

The minister said there was no ban on recruitment in these universities. They had only been told to constitute recruitment committees.

On the issue of fee structure in institutes of higher education, he said "we must be prepared to pay more for higher education as the government can no longer subsidise education".

Earlier, participating in the seminar, the minister said the Sikh religion was being under attack as attempts were being made to create a difference between the ideologies of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. He said nothing was farther from the truth.

Two papers by Dr J.S. Grewal and Dr Tejwant Singh Gill were read out in the morning session.