"Money-minting exercise": DU college launches CUET 2022 coaching classes, draws flak

NEW DELHI: Ramanujan College, a Delhi University college has drawn criticism for launching a crash course providing coaching on Common University Entrance Test (CUET) exam amidst the claims that the CUET exam is promoting a coaching culture, which will make it more convenient to privileged students but will sideline people from the marginalised sessions and poor backgrounds.

The CUET 2022 crash course launched by the DU college for the commerce stream is in virtual mode for a course duration of one month. The Ramanujan College is charging Rs 12,000 for the course which is scheduled to be held from June 1 to 30. Subjects such as English, maths, accountancy, business studies and economics are to be covered as per the announcement. Professionals and faculty from Delhi University colleges and reputed schools will help the students who enrol for the CUET coaching class, claims Ramanujan College.

"Who says that #CUET will not promote coaching? Here is a DU college that itself is saying that they will provide coaching for CUET, said Naveen Kumar, a professor at the physics department of the Dayal Singh College in a social media post. He further said it is expected of the CUET exam to promote coaching but he did not expect that a Delhi University college will come up with such an initiative. "Note the fees of this coaching is Rs. 12,000 for one month of course. A new benchmark for other colleges, that could help in generating a huge amount of money," he said.

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"Crash courses like this will crash the education system," said Mithuraaj Dhusiya, assistant professor at Hans Raj College in a Facebook post. According to Dhusiya, the University of Delhi administration was made aware of the possibility of an increase in the number of coaching centres due to the CUET exam in the DU academic council meetings. "It is absolutely disgusting to see a DU college itself joining this money-minting exercise. Will DU administration wake up and act?," he said.

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Since the University Grants Commission (UGC) made the CUET exam mandatory for getting admission to undergraduate programmes of central universities, many coaching centres have seen an increased enrollment trend. Recently, UGC chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar informed that about 9,81,406 individuals have registered for the CUET 2022 exam for undergraduate admissions and about 7,39,027 completed applications have been submitted.