Students, parents and all other stakeholders in India’s vast higher education system can now go online and tell the government what they think about dramatic reforms to the country’s engineering entrance examinations. The human resource development (HRD) ministry and the department of science and technology (DST) have launched a first-of-its-kind opinion poll on the proposed reforms to tests, including the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). The Centre is also using social networking site Facebook to popularise the online poll.
The Centre has proposed replacing the multiple entrance tests conducted by states, private engineering schools, and the IIT-JEE and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) with a single national testing scheme (NTS). Over 20 lakh students annually appear for about 20 engineering entrance tests to take the multiple examinations.
But the proposal to replace tests like the IIT-JEE has faced criticism from sections within the country’s academic community. The poll, sources said, is aimed at accomplishing two goals. “We believe that while sections may support multiple tests, the majority will support the initiative to save students the trouble of having to sit for repeated entrance tests. The opinion poll will help us establish that support, and make the task of pushing the NTS easier,” a source explained.
This mass support — which the government is confident it will garner — will also help it counter opposition likely from some states that run their own entrance tests, the sources said.
The online poll will also help the Centre to get suggestions of people across the country and even abroad on reforms.
The Centre has proposed replacing the multiple entrance tests conducted by states, private engineering schools, and the IIT-JEE and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) with a single national testing scheme (NTS). Over 20 lakh students annually appear for about 20 engineering entrance tests to take the multiple examinations.
But the proposal to replace tests like the IIT-JEE has faced criticism from sections within the country’s academic community. The poll, sources said, is aimed at accomplishing two goals. “We believe that while sections may support multiple tests, the majority will support the initiative to save students the trouble of having to sit for repeated entrance tests. The opinion poll will help us establish that support, and make the task of pushing the NTS easier,” a source explained.
This mass support — which the government is confident it will garner — will also help it counter opposition likely from some states that run their own entrance tests, the sources said.
The online poll will also help the Centre to get suggestions of people across the country and even abroad on reforms.
No comments:
Post a Comment