A section of principals of arts and science colleges are of the opinion that the subject combinations in the existing form at higher secondary level limits the choice of students for higher education, and expect the State Government to involve representatives of universities also in deciding the core subject groupings in future.
Referring to the recent attempt to reduce the number of core subjects to three and restoring status quo ante within days, school heads say that though the move was well-conceived, the subject combinations advocated under the new system did not provide the solution to the prevailing confusion at the time of joining undergraduation.
The present streams are Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Maths; Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Maths; Commerce, Accountancy, Economics, Computer Science or Business Maths. The subject combinations in the science group are known to have been devised keeping in mind only the options of medicine and engineering.
"The existing subject combinations need to be changed as students are currently unable to take informed decisions for undegraduate education in the arts and science domains," S. Ismail Mohideen, Principal of Jamal Mohamed College, said. For instance, for admission into B.Sc. Physics course, the students should have studied Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Students who had opted for the pure science group: Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology, are not aware that they are ineligible for B.Sc. Physics, as they had not studied Mathematics at higher secondary level.
Likewise, students who had studied Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Computer science at higher secondary also feel stranded, as they are ineligible for both B.Sc. Physics and B.Sc. Computer Science as they had not studied Mathematics at higher secondary level. For both the UG programmes, Mathematics is vital, Prof. Ismail explained. Students planning to pursue BBA for undergraduation also need to be aware that they must have studied Mathematics at higher secondary level, along with Commerce, Economics and Accountancy. Those who choose Computer Applications over Mathematics are not eligible for BBA, he explained.
According to school heads, the School Education Department had, after announcing the decision to have only three core subjects with two language papers for higher secondary level, purportedly to reduce the burden on the students, backtracked within days to restore the status quo ante after objections were raised by parents and the academic community.
"The idea to have three core subjects at higher secondary level cannot be faulted. Students appearing for NEET do not have to study Mathematics and for JEE, Biology is immaterial. Hence, the students must be permitted to choose only one of the two combinations of three core subjects: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry or Physics, Chemistry and Biology," Anbarasu, former head of a government higher secondary school, said, adding that such a subject combination was offered in the earlier PUC (Pre-University Course) system.
