Stakeholders write to Vice-Chancellor calling for trials under ECA
Several students and stakeholders were calling for restoration of the ECA Quota. Now, Students are expressing disappointment over the decision to admit students only based on certificates without trials, calling it an incomplete restoration.
According to Yashvardhan Shukla, Various Disciplines under the ECA do not have stipulated authorities to issue certificates, unlike the sports quota. He is a student of Sri Venkateshwara College, who has been campaigning for the restoration of the ECA quota.
No way to check authenticity of certificates
Members of the academic and executive council also wrote to the Vice Chancellor on Monday. They argued that depending solely on certificates would not be a sound basis for evaluating the performance of individuals and called for trials. ECA trials can be held at the college level to ensure physical distancing, They suggested.
Competitions are held at various levels, such as inter school, intra school, where judges may be people who aren’t experts. Certificates aren’t a representation of an individual’s ability and may also be easily forged, said Manya Dobhal, who got a seat in Lady Sri Ram College through dance ECA quota in 2018.
Why no trials?
An official said that a university sub committee formed to look into the matter had considered various options for holding trials, before deciding not to. Online Trials were ruled out because of technological issues. There are nearly 25,000 ECA applications. The University’s servers wouldn’t be able to take the load If videos were to be uploaded. In case of live video calls, applicants who don’t have appropriate means or have poor connectivity may be at a disadvantage.
The University is considering another option, holding trials through a third part agency. But this was rejected because the cost of this would be extremely high and participants would still have to travel to the centre.
