Common entrance for medical,engineering streams soon (Roundup)

NEW DELHI - Moving to make the educational system more student friendly, a common entrance examination for the engineering and medical streams is on the anvil, as are other measures to encourage merit, simplify exams and improve access to student loans.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Friday said that as a beginning, the Central Board of Secondary Education-conducted All India Pre-Medical Test and All India Engineering Entrance Exam will be a combined affair.

The minister was addressing the press after a meeting with state education ministers. The meeting also discussed the formation of a National Education Finance Corporation (NEFC) with an initial corpus of Rs.5,500 crore and giving housing and insurance benefits to 60 lakh teachers.

Talking about the merging of the exams, the minister said that the step was aimed at makeing education student-centric.

“It will reduce the pressure on students who have to appear for 10 or 15 entrance exams,” he said.

The proposal comes along with a slew of measures to reduce the burden on students, including that of having uniform syllabi and an aptitude test after Class 12. The steps aim at tackling the mushrooming of coaching institutes.

“Only those who can afford coaching are getting through the exams. Even institutes like IITs agree that the best talent is not coming due to increasing coaching institutions,” Sibal said.

The aptitude test will comprise of general awareness and aptitude questions and the score will be combined with Class 12 board scores to take out a weightage which will be considered by universities.

This will be backed by a National Institution for Assessment and Evaluation. Sibal largely stressed on regular evaluation of students till Class 10. Inclusion of physical education and value education in the school curriculum are the other innovative measures the government is taking to improve school education.

The meeting also discussed the formation of the NEFC, which will refinance banks to give educational loans at lower rates.

“The formation of National Education Finance Corporation is an ongoing process, it will be taken up with Finance Ministry and Planning Commission,” Sibal said.

The NEFC corpus will eventually rise to Rs.35,500 crore by 2020.

The state government’s contribution to the fund has, however, not been determined.

“We have asked the state governments to contribute. Now they will take up the issue with their finance ministers,” Sibal said.

As another plan mulls DMAT format for certificates, the minister said the loan would be mentioned with the qualification certificate.

“This way the employer can pay the loan directly,” he said.

As an incentive to teachers, the ministry proposed insurance and group housing schemes for 60 lakh teachers across the country.

The insurance schemes will be backed by central funds while group housing scheme will be implemented by states under central monitoring.

While most of the proposal made by the government were welcomed, states disagreed on increasing the retirement age for teachers from 60 to 65.

Sibal also proposed a National Vocational Education Framework for evaluation of vocational training institutes.

–Indo Asian News Service