States agree ‘in principle’ to common test for Science, Engg courses
From CK Nayak
New Delhi: Bowing to demands of the Northeastern states, particularly Meghalaya, the Union Government on Wednesday assured in no uncertain terms that the special pool made available by the Ministry of Human Resource Development for educational institutions in these states would remain unaffected.
Meghalaya’s Minister for Education, Dr RC Laloo, who participated in Wednesday’s meeting of state education ministers here, put his foot down while demanding that the existing quota for engineering seats of the HRD Ministry should not be disturbed.
Dr Laloo welcomed the Centre’s proposal for a common eligibility test for higher education in Science and Engineering courses.
During the meeting, a presentation was made on the reforms proposed in the entrance examinations for admission to Engineering institutions. However, it was clarified to the states that the reform would not, in any way, affect reservations enjoyed by the states. It was clarified that the states could adopt their own weightages for State Board marks and the National-level examinations for admission to State-level institutions.
After detailed deliberations, the proposal for a common national examination with effect from 2013 with weightage to State Board results, normalized on the basis of percentiles formula, was endorsed ‘in principle’ by the states. It was also decided that the details for the common examination process would be finalized in the next two months in consultation with the states.
After deliberations, the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework (NVEQF) and the concept on community colleges was also unanimously endorsed by all the states including Meghalaya.
There was also a decision to start 100 Community Colleges across the country on a pilot basis in 2012-13 which would be scaled up gradually.
Speaking at the meeting, Dr Laloo said, “Courses run by the respective State Boards and others may be integrated with the mainstream curricula, which will enable students, who cannot meet the standards of formal education, to be diverted to vocational course after passing their Class X examinations.”
Dr Laloo also informed the gathering that the Meghalaya Assembly had unanimously resolved to amend the RTE Act to make it compatible with the local and socio-cultural scenario. He also reiterated Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma’s demand for 100 per cent funding of the activities and interventions deemed mandatory under the RTE Act.
Education ministers agreed that the issue of quality of Elementary Education is a matter of deep concern. While many states have developed state vision of quality and also initiated some curricular reform, a lot of age-inappropriate material continues to form part of the textbooks and teaching learning material used in classrooms.
Dr Laloo is also learnt to have Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal separately.