India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday hailed the proposed Common Entrance Test (CET) for engineering courses from 2013, saying this would put an end to the capitation fee process in various colleges. Addressing the State Education Ministers Conference here, Sibal said CET would give a chance to diligent children hailing from rural regions across the country, who are otherwise not able to apply for entrance exams in various colleges due to financial restrictions. "Children usually get deviated from their path after completing 12th grade. They sit in around 25-30 entrance examinations and deposit security for every entrance; this creates an atmosphere of pressure on children. Parents and children both get deviated from the path. These discussions were not just held in the parliament, but were also held outside the parliament that there should be a common entrance test in the country, so that children do not get deviated from their path. And another point is that if there would be a common test and a common merit list, then definitely, it would put an end to the capitation fee because admission would take place on the basis of merit list and the private sector would also follow this process. Then, the admission to private colleges would also be on the basis of the same merit list after counselling. The atmosphere of capitation fee would end," said Sibal. Henceforth, the entrance tests would be recognised by the premier academies imparting technical education such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), with considerable reckoning given both to the candidates' test scores as well as their performance in the intermediate school examinations. He pointed that this is a progressive step so as to lend substantial advantage for the 12th grade results at the high school stage. "The IIT counsel felt that across India people who sit for IIT exams, they do not give importance to the 12th grade exams and after 10th grade, parents who are financially secure send their children to Kota (IIT entrance exam coaching hub) and they begin the coaching of IIT entrance exam. The result is children hailing from villages never get the chance. And because it is a technique to pass the exam, children learn this technique and enter IIT. They ignore the studies of 12th grade. However, what we need is class 12th grade education should be taken seriously," noted Sibal. Sibal added what is of paramount, for both for the state as well as the federal government is to take India forward by empowering kids in schools and by empowering our students in colleges and universities. "We would want that the states should also adopt this pattern, as it would benefit the states. As the test would be conducted by IIT and this merit test would have its own significance. If the states would adopt this pattern then definitely it would give an opportunity to the state educational institutions that capable students would be admitted to their institutions," added Sibal. The new system, which will replace the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) for the IITs and the AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Examination) recognised by the NITs and IIITs, will feature a main test and an advance test, which will be given weightage along with the school results. Now, technical institutions would prepare the common merit list by giving 40 percent weightage to board examinations, 30 percent to the main exam and 30 percent to the advanced examination. While the NITs and the IIITs will implement the process from 2012, the IITs will initially select the top 50,000 students for their advance tests, making a transition to the full process by 2015. At the pinnacle of its vast system of engineering and technology colleges, India boasts of sixteen IITs, thirty NITs, and five IIITs coveted institutions, which see hundreds of thousands of students vying for limited seats on an offer every year.

Sibal says proposed CET will end capitation fee process in colleges