Teachers of Jadavpur University’s science faculty have suggested separate criteria for admission to undergraduate courses for students from the Bengal board and those from the CBSE board and the ICSE council, in keeping with the Covid impact on the respective exams.

The teachers have recommended that since the West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education failed to conduct the physics and chemistry exams because of the epidemic, the marks of math and physical science in Madhyamik will be factored in.

The CBSE board and the ICSE council, however, held the physics, chemistry and math exams. So, plus-II marks of the students from the board and the council will be taken into account when the merit list will be drawn up.

Among the science subjects, the HS council could only conduct the math test. A student’s best score among the papers he or she had written before the lockdown was awarded to physics and chemistry.

Partha Pratim Roy, an associate professor of physics, said the scores in the science subjects — physics, chemistry and math — at the plus-II level are considered for admission to all subjects in the science faculty, including geography.

“How can students from the state board be admitted on the basis of scores in the subjects in which he/she has not been assessed? It has been suggested that the marks in math and physical science in Madhyamik be considered to get an idea about the merit of the prospective candidates,” Roy said.

A teacher of geography at JU said they had recommended that the marks in geography, along with math, in Madhyamik be considered for admission to the undergraduate course of their department.

While the science departments of JU admit students on the basis of their plus-II scores, the humanities departments give equal weightage to the admission test score and plus-II marks. Admissions tests — pen-and-paper or online — cannot be held because of the epidemic and poor Net connectivity in many areas. So, teachers have suggested that students be admitted only on the basis of their plus-II scores.

The English department wants to give equal weightage to plus-II board scores in two languages and plus-II board aggregate, while the economics department may take marks of math out of 200 (doubling the weightage) and English out of 100.

Pro-vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said the admission modalities will be finalised at the meetings of the admission committees of arts and science, to be held on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.