Panel in place to study the possibilities of scrapping IITJEE and introducing a Common Aptitude Test
Panel in place to study the possibilities of scrapping IITJEE and introducing a Common Aptitude Test
HRD Ministry has asked a panel of IIT directors to consider scrapping the forty year old IIT Joint Entrance Examination (IIT JEE) and replacing it with a general common aptitude test, reports the Telegraph.The panel of directors, headed by IIT Kharagpur chief Damodar Acharya, was set up by HRD minister Kapil Sibal last month to examine possible JEE reforms.
But under the panel’s terms of reference the directors have been asked to specifically focus on whether the IIT-JEE can be buried altogether, along with other national and state engineering entrance examinations.
Mr. Sibal had some time back announced plans to introduce a common Class XI & XII school syllabus in the sciences and mathematics, and a common examination for admission into colleges along the lines of the US-based scholastic aptitude test.
The terms of reference prepared by the HRD ministry, however, unambiguously ask the panel to “examine the possibility” of replacing the IIT-JEE and other engineering tests conducted across the country with a common entrance test (CET).
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This CET, the detailed notification of the panel’s work profile says, should focus more on testing the general aptitude of students than on quizzing them on mathematics, physics and chemistry like the IIT-JEE and other examinations.
The notification, representing the vision of the ministry, suggests that the panel of directors work out a mechanism under which students are selected based on their scores in the Class XII board examination and the CET.
The CET will not just admit students to the IITs and other institutions that select students through the JEE, but will also replace All India Engineering Entrance Examination and state-specific entrance examinations, the notification says.
The AIEEE, which will end with the proposed CET, currently admits the majority of Indian engineering aspirants into colleges. Scores in the AIEEE are used by all central engineering colleges other than the IITs and to fill 50 per cent seats, even in colleges affiliated to state universities.States fill the remaining 50 per cent seats of their engineering colleges based on their own entrance tests — which, too, the CET aims to end.
