Admission Only on Merit, Not Gender, Says Karnataka PU Board

The Karnataka PU Board has issued a notice that states that admissions to PU colleges should be based on merit.

In light of reports of differental cut-offs for boys and girls in Bengaluru PU colleges, the state Pre-University (PU) Education department has announced that all colleges must henceforth only admit students on the basis of merit.

In a notice issued by the PU board on Monday, 20 May, it said that in the coming days, colleges would be officially instructed to do away with the seat matrix that suggested that seat distribution should happen on a 50:50 basis for boys and girls.

According to the guidelines issued by the PU Education Department ahead of the current academic session, colleges had been advised to maintain a seat matrix of equal number of boys and girls in a stream.

Reports about differential cut-offs for boys and girls in Bengaluru colleges had sparked widespread outrage with many people taking to social media to air their frustration.

“When women do well, raise the bar. Punish them. When men do well, it's called? Merit,” Tara Krishnaswamy, a civic activist had written on Facebook.

As a result of the seat matrix, boys with lower marks have managed to secure admissions while girls with the same or higher marks have missed out.

“I got 83% which is enough for boys to get into the course I want but not girls. Girls require 85 % or 86%. I really don’t think it is fair to discriminate girls like that. ” Bhamini (name changed) who had applied for an arts course in Christ Junior College told The Quint.

When questioned about the status of girls who have missed out on being admitted in the previous lists, C Shikha, Director of the PU Department said that everyone who had missed out getting admitted due to the differential cut-offs would be accommodated in the subsequent lists.

“The circular will only come into effect prospectively, and not retrospectively. In colleges where they have released multiple lists and some students have missed out due to higher cut-offs would be accommodated in the subsequent lists where the cut-offs would be the same for boys and girls.”

C Shikha, Director of PU department