The common engineering test, on the lines of common medical test — National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), may not be implemented from the next year, as the government first wants to see the outcome of NEET and then take a call on conducting one for engineering students.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry had recently cleared the proposal of having a common engineering entrance exam for admission to various engineering colleges across the county. Earlier the test was supposed to start from next year, however, the government now wants to wait till July before taking a final call.
There is already a common medical test—NEET, which took off in a full-fledged way from this year. “We want to first see how the admissions happen on merit basis through NEET. If that process goes on smoothly, we will take a call on starting the common engineering test. The final call will only be taken after July this year,” said Prakash Javadekar, HRD Minister.
“And it is not only the completion of exams and results that I want to see but also up to the admission. I want to see if people are getting admission based on their merit,”he added.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which oversees aspects related to technical education in the country, had discussed at a meeting early this year a proposal for having a single entrance test for engineering colleges for undergraduate courses.
The HRD ministry had told AICTE that the proposal is in line with the government’s policy and it could incorporate suitable regulations to enable the holding of such a test.
The decision had been taken to maintain the standards of engineering education. India has more than 3,300 approved engineering colleges affiliated to universities, with an annual intake of an estimated 1.6 million students.
Admission to Indian Institutes of Engineering (IITs) will however continue to happen on the basis of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) only.
JEE SCORES STILL COUNTS FOR IIT
- The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which oversees aspects related to technical education in the country, had discussed at a meeting early this year a proposal for having a single entrance test for engineering colleges for undergraduate courses. Admission to Indian Institutes of Engineering (IITs) will however continue to happen on the basis of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) only.
