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New Delhi: As the government
moves ahead with its plan for a common engineering entrance test,
a majority of states at a meeting of education ministers Tuesday
refused to join the new IIT-JEE entrance format for institutions
run by them.
A proposed new format for the Indian Institutes of
Technology-Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE) merges it with All India
Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) and states have been given
freedom to decide on joining the common entrance exam.
However, except Haryana, Maharashtra and Gujarat, states at the
Tuesday meeting did not express willingness to join the new JEE,
said sources.
"Majority of states have not agreed to join the new format of
common entrance exam for the state-run institutions," an official
from the human resource development ministry said, declining to be
named.
At the meeting, the states, however, did not oppose the adoption
of the new pattern for central institutions.
A statement from the ministry said: "After detailed deliberations,
the proposal for a common examination process for admission to
engineering programmes was supported unanimously."
Most state ministers also disagreed on different criteria set for
IITs and other institutions.
The new entrance test format combines IIT-JEE and AIEEE, and the
successful candidates will be admitted to IITs, National
Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other central institutions.
The government proposal says within this format a different
yardstick will be adopted for admission to IITs, which will only
take students with higher percentage in the test.
States are opposed to this and have sought the same criteria for
admission to IITs, NITs and Indian Institutes of Information
Technology (IIITs). HRD Minister Kapil Sibal remained
non-committal on accepting this demand.
The new pattern, after the merger of AIEEE and IIT-JEE, will have
two papers -- main and advanced -- and will also include a fixed
weightage from the Class 12 board exam results.
IIT professors and alumni have opposed the move, saying it will
dilute the standards of IITs.
"If the yardstick for admission to IITs and other institutions is
made same, it will dilute the IITs as envisioned by first prime
minister Jawaharlal Nehru," IIT-Delhi Alumni Association president
Somnath Bharti told IANS.
He called the proposal an "eyewash". "It will not reduce
multiplicity of entrance tests, nor will it stop the coaching
institutions. Rather coaching will now be given for all board
exams, and the two papers for the JEE."
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