Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Tiruchi may become AIEEE centre next year

TIRUCHI: Thanks to increasing awareness, the number of students appearing from Tiruchi and surrounding districts for All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) has been rising significantly over the years.

Front-ranking coaching centres have been training students in droves in the region. A few of the coaching centres also have tie-ups with some of the front-ranking schools to impart coaching tailored to the needs of students. More importantly, the only National Institute of Technology is in Tiruchi.

All these factors easily reflect the fact that Tiruchi is a fit case for consideration as AIEEE Centre. But, the status has been eluding Tiruchi for years now, much to the consternation of students and parents.

Official sources indicated last year that Tiruchi would be made an AIEEE centre this year. But, this year also, the examination centres have been restricted to Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai. Students from Tiruchi region have been forced to spend time, money and energy for travel this year also.

The weariness of travel puts them at a disadvantage. A majority of an estimated 3,000 students travelled to Madurai last year to appear for AIEEE, according to a trainer. Interestingly, the number of candidates from Tiruchi region surpassed that of the Madurai region, sources said.

In fact, the awareness on AIEEE is more in Tiruchi region compared to even Coimbatore, according to A. Rajagopal, a full-time trainer of AIEEE and IIT-JEE. He wonders how Tiruchi is not considered as an AIEEE Centre when even IIT-JEE is conducted here.

As far as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) which has been conducting the AIEEE is concerned, the main criterion for identifying a region as AIEEE centre is the extent of presence of CBSE schools. Unfortunately, the fact that quality-conscious students from State Board have begun to evince interest in AIEEE in a significant way has been overlooked. Also the number of CBSE schools has witnessed a significant rise over the past few years, a Principal of a CBSE school pointed out.

Knowledgeable sources exuded hope that the issue would be resolved by next year since the NITs are in the process of taking over the responsibility of conducting AIEEE from the Central Board of Secondary Education. All NITs are likely to be considered as ideal examination centres after the transition, said M. Chidambaram, Director, NIT, Tiruchi.

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