The Quality of our College Teachers

Please read this previous related piece on the National Eligibility Test (NET) for context.

In order to become an Assistant Professor or a Junior Research Fellow in any of our Universities or Colleges, an individual MUST *qualify* in the NET. Even the IITs must consider the NET in order to recruit Professors.

Structure of NET examination:

• There are 83 subjects in which examinations are conducted.
• Every candidate must write 3 papers.
• The contents of the 3 papers are as follows
  • Paper-I shall be of general nature, intended to assess the teaching/research aptitude of the candidate. It will primarily be designed to test reasoning ability, comprehension, divergent thinking and general awareness of the candidate. 60 (sixty) multiple choice questions of 2 marks each will be given, out of which the candidate would be required to answer any 50 (fifty)
  • Paper-II shall consist of 50 objective type compulsory questions based on the subject selected by the candidate. Each question will carry 2 marks
  • Paper-III will consist of 75 objective type compulsory questions from the subject selected by the candidate. Each question will carry 2 marks

Qualification criteria:

• Pass marks for Paper 1
  • General category students : 40
  • Others : 35
• Pass marks for Paper 2
  • General category students : 40
  • Others : 35
• Pass marks for Paper 3
  • General category students : 75
  • Others : 60
• Once the list of students who have passed as per above is obtained, the top 15% of students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, Disabled Category and General Category are made in each subject.

The 5 lists, each containing 15% of top ranking students, constitutes the “Qualifying Candidates” list.

Just so that we internalize it – let us paraphrase it once again.

The people who join our colleges and universities as professors come from this top-15%-list.

In the year 2015, a total of 23595 students constituted this qualifying list. Let us look at the performance of these “top” students. Here is a table capturing the lower end of the top-folks 🙂

Observations:

• 5% of the top students – who actually hold a Master’s degree or equivalent – cannot even score 40% marks in a paper which tests their reasoning ability, comprehension, divergent thinking and general awareness.
• 15% of the top students – cannot even score 50% in a paper which contains objective type questions on the subject of their choice. Again, these are Masters degree holders.

POST GRADUATES WHO STRUGGLE TO EVEN SCORE MINIMUM MARKS IN REASONING ABILITY, COMPREHENSION AND SUBJECT OF EXPERTISE ARE THE TOP TALENT AVAILABLE IN THIS COUNTRY ENDING UP BECOMING TEACHERS IN OUR *ELITE* COLLEGES.

GOD SAVE THIS COUNTRY!