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Raju at helm, Andhra lobby active to scuttle CET 2013
One of the pet projects of former HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, a Common Entrance Test (CET) from 2013 for admission to all engineering colleges across the country including the prestigious IITs, could face some hurdles in its way for implementation.
A strong lobby from Andhra Pradesh, which against the single exam process during Sibal’s tenure too - has now once again become active in stalling it in view of the fact that the new HRD Minister M Pallam Raju hails from the State. The lobby comprising a section of State’s academicians, admission agents and representing politically-affiliated organisations wants the CET to be put on hold and continue with the existing format.
The move comes as several universities of the State run engineering courses on their premises and affiliated campuses and conduct their own common entrance test. With Raju at the helm now, their hope seems to have rekindled.
Already, there’s a buzz within the Ministry about the 2013 CET being put on hold. “Nothing is absolute and such decisions can be put on hold if they threaten to complicate matters. The Minister (Raju) himself is an engineer and he may take a call on it and weigh the options,” source said.
The issue, sources said, has already been taken up by the Ministry with several individual heads of bureaus related to school education.
Soon after taking over, in an interaction with the media, Raju had termed the examination reforms of Sibal in IITs as “well intentioned” but pointed out about the “transitional challenges”.
As things stand, a strong education racket is active in Andhra Pradesh which has the maximum number of engineering colleges - Government as well as private. Admission irregularities including high donations, capitation fee and manipulations continue unabated.
Besides the Andhra lobby, the two-tier CET faced hiccups even from the IIT Senates, its faculty associations and the alumni association, with the matter even reaching Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
With uncertainty prevailing following the rejig in HRD Ministry, IIT and engineering aspirants may face another dilemma as the Joint Admission Board has already announced the dates of the entrance test besides the type and pattern of examination system including the question paper. The JEE Mains (offline or pen and paper based) is scheduled to be held on April 4, 2013 while online is to be slotted between April 8 and 25). The JEE Advanced dates will be announced on February 1, 2013. The online registration is to begin from Thursday and will continue till December 15, 2012.
One of the pet projects of former HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, a Common Entrance Test (CET) from 2013 for admission to all engineering colleges across the country including the prestigious IITs, could face some hurdles in its way for implementation.
A strong lobby from Andhra Pradesh, which against the single exam process during Sibal’s tenure too - has now once again become active in stalling it in view of the fact that the new HRD Minister M Pallam Raju hails from the State. The lobby comprising a section of State’s academicians, admission agents and representing politically-affiliated organisations wants the CET to be put on hold and continue with the existing format.
The move comes as several universities of the State run engineering courses on their premises and affiliated campuses and conduct their own common entrance test. With Raju at the helm now, their hope seems to have rekindled.
Already, there’s a buzz within the Ministry about the 2013 CET being put on hold. “Nothing is absolute and such decisions can be put on hold if they threaten to complicate matters. The Minister (Raju) himself is an engineer and he may take a call on it and weigh the options,” source said.
The issue, sources said, has already been taken up by the Ministry with several individual heads of bureaus related to school education.
Soon after taking over, in an interaction with the media, Raju had termed the examination reforms of Sibal in IITs as “well intentioned” but pointed out about the “transitional challenges”.
As things stand, a strong education racket is active in Andhra Pradesh which has the maximum number of engineering colleges - Government as well as private. Admission irregularities including high donations, capitation fee and manipulations continue unabated.
Besides the Andhra lobby, the two-tier CET faced hiccups even from the IIT Senates, its faculty associations and the alumni association, with the matter even reaching Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
With uncertainty prevailing following the rejig in HRD Ministry, IIT and engineering aspirants may face another dilemma as the Joint Admission Board has already announced the dates of the entrance test besides the type and pattern of examination system including the question paper. The JEE Mains (offline or pen and paper based) is scheduled to be held on April 4, 2013 while online is to be slotted between April 8 and 25). The JEE Advanced dates will be announced on February 1, 2013. The online registration is to begin from Thursday and will continue till December 15, 2012.
