New Delhi, June 5: The Centre’s proposal for one-nation-one-exam in engineering today drew mixed responses from states, many of which, including Congress-ruled Kerala, remained non-committal about adopting it.

At the state education ministers’ conference, Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal suggested that the proposed (central) joint entrance examination would help students as they would not have to take multiple entrance tests for admission in engineering.

“If you adopt the (central) JEE, children will not have to appear in multiple exams. Capitation fee will cease to exist as students qualifying the national entrance will have the flexibility to decide which institution to join,” he said.

But the proposal failed to convince many ministers who backed its implementation in central institutions but did not commit whether they would adopt it in their states.

The education ministers of Kerala, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Puducherry said there was no plan to adopt the central JEE now. There was no representation from Bengal at the conference.

“We support the JEE for central institutions. But we have no plans to adopt it in our state,” said Kerala education minister P.K. Abdu Rabb.

According to IIT Kanpur director S.G. Dhande, there are about 200 engineering entrance exams in the country. The IITs conduct the IIT-JEE; the CBSE conducts the AIEEE for admission into central institutions like NITs and IIITs. Each state conducts its own engineering entrance test. Almost all deemed universities have their own entrance tests.

Last week, the IIT council and the NIT council decided to replace the IIT-JEE and the AIEEE by a single JEE from 2013. The JEE will be conducted in two parts — JEE-Main and JEE-Advanced — and the performance of students in Class XII will get weightage.

However, the selection process will be different for IITs and other central institutions. The IITs will follow 50-50 weightage towards performance of students in Class XII and the JEE Main exam for filtering purposes. Nearly 50,000 students would then be selected through screening. These candidates will be eligible for admission into IITs. They will be awarded all-India rank on the basis of their performance in the JEE-Advanced test.

Other central institutions like NITs and IIITs will follow a different methodology. These institutions will give 40 per weightage to Class XII board marks and 30 per cent weightage each to the JEE-Main and the JEE-Advanced tests. The Class XII board marks would be calculated through a percentile-based formula.

“In principle, we support the single entrance in engineering. Multiple entrance exams are a burden on students. We will examine it and decide if we can adopt it,” said Bihar education minister P.K. Shahi.

Shahi opposed the IITs having a separate selection procedure. He was supported by Assam education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who said “IITs should not be allowed to dictate terms”.

Haryana, Maharashtra and Gujarat have agreed to adopt the central JEE from 2013. Assam’s Sarma and Madhya Pradesh’s Laxmikant Sharma said their states might adopt the national test from 2014.

Gujarat’s education minister Ramanlal Vora said JEE question papers should be available in Gujarati. At present, IIT-JEE is conducted in English and Hindi only. An IIT director said setting question papers in regional languages raised the risk of leaks.

Sibal asked states to decide by month-end whether to adopt the central JEE by 2013.

IIT/IIM austerity

Carrying forward its austerity drive, the Centre today restrained autonomous bodies, including IITs, IIMs and universities, from creating new posts and holding meetings in five-star hotels.

The restrictions, imposed on ministries and departments in May to reduce non-Plan expenditure by 10 per cent, have been extended to government-funded autonomous bodies like trade bodies, educational institutions, medical colleges and cultural organisations.

“...it has been decided to extend the economy measures outlined in the Office Memorandum dated May 31, 2012 to autonomous bodies funded by the Government of India,” a note issued by expenditure secretary Sumit Bose said.