Allotments by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE) to engineering and medical courses in Kerala state would begin during the first week of June 2010. This time only half a mark would be deducted for wrong answers in the entrance examinations.
The candidature of students who mark options during the last round of allotment and subsequently ‘waste’ government seats by not taking admission would be cancelled and liquidated damages would be charged from them, the CEE, B.S. Mavoji said here on Sunday.
He was speaking at a press conference where the prospectus for engineering / medical entrance examinations 2010 was released by the Education Minister M. A. Baby who handed over the first copy to the Health Minister P. K. Sreemathy.
Till last year one mark used to be deducted for a wrong answer. This resulted in 30 to 35 per cent of candidates getting disqualified for the engineering entrance and around 15 per cent candidates getting disqualified for the medical entrance. The reduction in negative marking has been done to enable more candidates to find a place in the rank lists. A correct answer would continue to fetch four marks, he said.
Often students who scored very high marks in the qualifying examinations did not make it to the rank list because marked wrong answers to some questions. The half a mark reduction being planned now was a symbolic move designed to dissuade candidates from indulging in large scale guess-work while marking answers, Mr. Mavoji explained.
In reply to a question Mr. Baby said government has already sought the opinion of student organisations on issues relating to reforms in the entrance examinations. Once this is received, the cabinet sub-committee and then the cabinet would give a final shape to the reforms, he said.
The government has already held one round of discussions with managements of private –self-financing engineering colleges on the question of the fee to be charged in the government seats in those colleges. Talks would soon be held with managements of self-financing colleges in the medical stream.
The fee for all courses would be decided in time for the allotments to begin as scheduled in June, he added.
Allotment for MBBS and engineering seats
In 2010 there would be 2,000 seats for the MBBS course in various categories of colleges in the State.
There would be 1070 seats for the BDS course; 740 seats for BAMS; 25, for BHMS; 50 seats for BSMS; 147 seats for the B.Sc Agriculture course; 120 seats for the B.VSc and AH course; 50 seats for the B.FSc course and 22, for the B.Sc Forestry course.
In the engineering stream there would be 30,443 seats in 2010. As many as 140 seats would be available for the architecture course. While there would be 46 seats for the B.Tech Agricultural Engineering course, there would be 23 seats for the B.Tech Dairy Science and Technology course.
Of these the CEE would make allotments for 1525 MBBS seats of which 850, would be in government colleges and 475, in private self-financing colleges. As many as 630 BDS seats, 495 BAMS seats, 250 BHMS seats and 25 BSMS seats, would be available for allotment, by the Commissioner.
In the engineering stream the CEE would make allotments to 19,470 seats. This includes 4271 seats in government and aided engineering colleges, 5436 seats in government-controlled self-financing colleges and 9694 seats in private self-financing colleges. For the architecture course 110 seats would be available for allotment.
A note circulated at the press conference said the CEE expects to receive 1,30,000 applications for the entrance examinations in 2010. Last year there were 1,18,000 applicants.
The prospectus can be accessed at the web site >www.cee-kerala.org .
