New Delhi, Feb. 22: The Centre’s proposal for a common national entrance examination for engineering colleges was today endorsed “in principle” by the majority of states.

However, Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Puducherry sought more time to study the proposal.

Tamil Nadu, where admissions are based exclusively on state board results, strongly opposed the common test.

The Union human resource development ministry has decided to introduce the common aptitude-cum-advanced knowledge test in 2013 in place of the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE).

JEE decides admissions to the 15 IITs, whereas AIEEE is used by 30 National Institutes of Technology, four Indian Institutes of Information Technology and five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research.

The AIEEE scores are also used by a number of private engineering and technical institutes. Over 10 lakh students apply for AIEEE and 5 lakh for JEE every year.

“A common test will ensure that there is a larger representation of students from all the states. Admission to IITs will not just be limited to students whose parents can afford coaching classes. And, also, since there is weightage given to the state board, students will pay attention to school studies, too,” HRD minister Kapil Sibal said at the end of a day-long conference with state education ministers. Twenty-three ministers attended the conference.

During admission, 60 per cent weightage will be given to the test scores and 40 per cent to state board marks. But if states want a different weightage for admission to their institutions they would be free to do so.

The question paper for the test will be drafted by IIT faculty and the exam will be conducted by CBSE.

The test will be held twice a year — in April/May and November/December. Sample papers will be placed in the public domain from July this year. Also, a student can repeat the exam to improve scores and the test scores will be valid for two years.

The exam will have two elements — an aptitude test to assess scholastic levels and an advanced section, which a student can choose to either continue with or skip.

After the test, a common merit list will be prepared after normalising the marks scored in different state boards.

At present, students seeking admission to engineering courses at the undergraduate level appear for multiple entrance exams. The standards of these exams vary widely, and are a burden to students in terms of time, money and the stress involved.

Also, since there is a lack of uniformity in the standards of all 42 school boards, it was impossible to rank students on an all-India basis.

A student could score higher marks in one board compared to another because of differences in course content and evaluation guidelines.

Although the proposal to have a common test has cleared the biggest roadblock by getting the approval of the states, it will be placed before the Central Advisory Board of Education for clearance. The Centre hopes the states will agree to introduce the test from 2014 in colleges that are run by them.