Tamil Nadu expressed its opposition to the common test even as Himachal Pradesh, Odjsha, Puducherry and West Bengal sought more time to study the proposal in details. At the end of a day-long state education minister's meet here, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said the Common Test will be admission to Central Engineering Institutes like IIT's begin with, and expressed hope states will also adopt it in coming years for admission to their engineering institutes.
He also said 11 boards at the Council of Boards of School Education in India (COBSE) meeting last week have “unanimously” supported the move. Four states listed as Delhi, Haryana, Uttarkhand and Chandigarh have already accepted CBSE conducted AIEEE scores for admission to their institutions.
Sibal said “The unanimous decision of the state education ministers today in passing the resolution was that we agreed in principle that there should be one test in 2013 for all students who want to seek admission to Central Engineering Institutions”.
The common merit list will be prepared based on 60% weightage to the common test and not less than 40% to class 12 Examination after normalizing scores of the state boards on the basis of percentiles formula prepared by Indian Statistical Institute.
Kapil said, the common examination will be conducted two to three times a year to enable students pick the best scores achieved for admission and the scores will remain valid or two years.