THIS is good news for students aspiring to be engineers or doctors.
A common entrance exam will soon replace the AIEEE ( All India Engineering Entrance Examination) and the AIPMT ( All India Pre- Medical Test) conducted by the CBSE. With the aim to de- stress students by reducing the multiplicity of entrance exams, the new combined test should be in place as early as next year.
Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, who chaired the state education ministers' conference in the Capital on Friday, said: " The states have shared our childcentric vision of education." He added that the government was working towards putting in place a common exam for students after Class XII that would test their aptitude.
Sibal said students opting for the medical sciences would appear for a
paper in biology and those opting for engineering would appear for a paper in maths, while physics and chemistry would be common for both.
" There is no need for two exams," he said. " We are currently debating whether it is possible to have a common exam after class XII that will test general awareness and aptitude. This will reduce the burden on students," he added.
The minister said " the intention is to give weightage to Class XII marks" which, along with the common test, would be the admission criteria in colleges and universities.
The marks of different boards could be equalised through a mathematical formula for weightage.
Sibal said even the Indian Institutes of Technology ( IIT), which are making changes in their admission process, would give greater weightage to Class XII marks. " The IITs feel they are not getting the best of students as coaching is expensive and lots of rural talent gets left out," the minister said.
Emphasis on Class XII marks would also enable students from economically weak sections to join the elite institutes.
Sibal stressed that all this was being debated and the scheme was yet to be worked out, after which it would be discussed with the states. " We are trying to have a system under which students will not have to appear for exam after exam. We want to test the students' intelligence and aptitude," he said.
Apart from this, Sibal stressed on the common core curriculum for science and maths.
The Council of Boards of School Education ( COBSE) has already prepared a common curriculum for science and maths and Sibal exhorted the state boards to adopt the curriculum.
This would help hold a common entrance test and create a level playing field, he said.
As the exam content needed to be changed continually, the minister said the government was setting up a National Institute for Assessment and Evaluation.
This would act as an advisory body and help school boards develop systems of evaluation.
As education should not be confined to textbooks, Sibal spoke of compulsory physical education. And students would also need to inculcate value education, for which a national curriculum framework will be developed. With the states on board, Sibal announced the above points as the agenda for his ministry in 2010- 2011.
