Govt plans single national level entrance test for undergraduate courses by 2013 - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Union Home Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said that efforts were in progress to conduct single national level entrance examination by 2013 for students seeking admission into engineering and medical courses. Speaking on the sidelines of 'Review Meeting on Core-curriculum for Science and Mathematics for +2 Stage' here, he said that if children want to succeed with equal opportunity, they should be admitted into the engineering and medical colleges through single exam. "In this meeting, on the basis of understanding of earlier meetings, a core-curriculum for the science and maths stream at the higher secondary level has already been prepared and there is 90 percent unanimity amongst the secondary boards present here....There is near unanimity that core-curriculum should be adopted. Now the question is that on the basis of this core-curriculum when an all-India test should take place; of that we believe that it is possible in 2013 and not before that," said Sibal. He added that this would reduce the burden on students and help students achieve equality of opportunity. Sibal met 20 chairpersons of school educational boards from various States to discuss the core-curriculum in the science stream. "We have also requested the chairman of COBSE (Council of Boards of School Education) and the chairman of the various secondary boards to look into commerce as the next stream for which we can prepare core curriculum and hopefully we will be prepared in the next three months. Hopefully, it will be adopted after three months; we are still working on it. So, there will logically be all India test; only one test for entry into the college system, into the university both in science and commerce," said Sibal. The Indian HRD Ministry is taking a series of steps to reform the education system in India and to reduce pressure on the children. In 2009, HRD Ministry announced that there would be no Board Examinations for the students of class 10 in schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The move would be implemented from the academic year of 2011. Board examinations would be conducted for 2010 but a grading system would be introduced.