Students aspiring to join the central engineering institutions will have to write a common national examination from next year. Weightage will also be given to State Education Board results in this examination.
The State governments and private institutions can, however, decide whether or not to join the common entrance test regime.
In simple terms, the government has decided to merge the Indian Institutes of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) and the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), and hold a common test in which the best scoring students can choose an institution of their choice. It will cover admissions to 15 IITs, 30 National Institutes of Technology and four Indian Institutes of Information Technology.
While Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Chandigarh have already decided to join this system, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry and West Bengal sought more time to study the proposal in detail. All universities and institutions offering engineering courses will now use the all-India merit list for admissions.
“After detailed deliberations, the proposal for a common national examination, with effect from 2013, with weightage to the State Board results, normalised on the basis of percentile formula, was endorsed “in principle” by the States,” Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told journalists on Wednesday at the end of a meeting of the State Education Ministers.
The proposal will now have to be taken to the Central Advisory Board of Education for final endorsement.
The final merit list will be prepared, with a 40 per cent weightage for the State Board examination results and 60 per cent for the entrance test marks.
The test would have two parts: main and advanced, to test the general aptitude and specific knowledge in the subject. The formula for equivalence across boards, derived by the Indian Statistical Institute, has taken into account the results of the last five years.
