Cuttack, Dec. 17: The Odisha Private Engineering College Association has urged chief minister Naveen Patnaik to "reconsider" the state government's decision to participate in the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) for the 2016 academic session.
The JEE (Main) is an all-India entrance test conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for students aspiring to get admitted to BTech courses.
The engineering college association (Opeca) has instead requested the state government to continue with the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE). Opeca secretary Binod Dash urged the chief minister "not to abolish OJEE for first year BTech programme until the Council for Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), Odisha, changes the Plus Two syllabus to CBSE pattern for the betterment of students and technical education in the state."
"The JEE (Main) is based on the CBSE pattern. Our students do not secure good marks in JEE (Main), as majority of the students belong to Plus Two CHSE Board, Odisha. As a result, they get depressed and do not study engineering, thereby making the engineering colleges in the state sick," Dash said in his memorandum.
There are around 45,000 seats in 101 engineering colleges in the state. While 23,000 seats had remained vacant in 2013, the number of vacant seats had gone up to 27,500 in 2014. This year only 18,000 seats were filled up.
"Many students fail to apply for the JEE (Main) as they stay in remote areas where there is no proper Internet facility. Admission to First year BTech has drastically fallen in the last two years," Dash said.
"The number of JEE (Main) examination centres is just one third compared to OJEE centres," he said.
Until 2013, admission to BTech courses in engineering colleges of the state was done through OJEE. However, with the state government joining the JEE (Main) from 2014, students aspiring for BTech seats had to appear for the JEE (Main) conducted by CBSE.
Opeca had moved the Orissa High Court following the state government's decision not to conduct OJEE in 2014 and 2015. In August 2014, the high court had directed the state government to hold Special OJEE Test for BTech (Engineering) courses for 2014-15.
When the state government decided to participate in the CBSE-conducted JEE (Main) 2015, the high court ruled that "the decision is not permissible under the Orissa Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2007." Following the ruling, the state government had to conduct OJEE for 2015-16. Technical education minister Sanjay Das Burma on December 11 said the department had proposed to amend the Act.
