The Hindu : National : Centre to discontinue AIMCET

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Tuesday, Jan 18, 2005

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Centre to discontinue AIMCET

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 17. The Government today decided to discontinue the year-old All-India Master of Computer Applications Common Entrance Test (AIMCET) with immediate effect; reversing another decision taken by the National Democratic Alliance regime at the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry.

As per the decision taken by the Human Resource Development Ministry today, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, will conduct a Joint Admission Test for Management to MCA programmes in IITs in future, beginning with the coming academic year. The first and only AIMCET — conducted on June 6, 2004 — had also been held by the Roorkee institute as it was the only IIT which had an MCA programme.

With the Ministry deciding to dispense with AIMCET, all Central/deemed universities can now conduct their own entrance examination while the State Governments will continue with the practice of holding their own common entrance tests for admission to an MCA programmes in the institutes within their jurisdiction.

All private institutions have the option of joining their respective State-level common entrance tests or conducting their own examinations.

The HRD Ministry, under Murli Manohar Joshi, had in October 2003 replaced the various entrance examinations for different professional courses with common entrance tests for each stream.

The AIMCET was applicable to those institutions which conduct their own entrance tests and admit students on an all-India basis, and all All-India Council for Technical Education-approved MCA programmes.

This decision, however, did not stop the States from conducting common entrance tests for admission to the MCA programmes in institutions within their jurisdiction; provided it was restricted to students from the State only.

The States which did not want to conduct their own tests had the option of using the merit determined by the all-India test.

Assurance in CMP

The new dispensation at the HRD Ministry under Arjun Singh has over the past months dismantled the one-entrance test regime in keeping with the commitment made in the National Common Minimum Programme of restoring autonomy to educational institutions.

Earlier, the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination — conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education — was made optional for all educational institutions other than the National Institute of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Information Technology, the National Institute of Forge and Foundry Technology (Ranchi), the School of Planning and Architecture (New Delhi), and other institutes of the Central Government.

Similarly, it has done away with the mandatory common entrance test for all management courses admitting students on an all-India basis.

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