TN not lone fighter against CET

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu was not alone in expressing its reservations on HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s plans for a common entrance test for engineering admissions to undergraduate courses throughout the country.Others like West Bengal felt that a CET would infringe on federal rights of the state, whereas Kerala, Puducherry and Odisha sought more time to respond.Talking to Express, K D Govindankutty Special Secretary, General Education Department of Kerala said that the state has sought more time to respond. “Today’s meeting was meant to reach a consensus on the issue of CET. Certain states have reservations while many have agreed to it in principle,” he said.According to him, the state will be responding to the proposal within a month’s time.An HRD ministry official when asked about TN’s opposition to CET told Express that the Ministry has no plans to thrust the CET upon anyone.“Every state is free to take its call. If they want to chose from the CET list they can do so, and if they want to hold their own tests, then they can do that,” he said.The Ministry official said that “barring TN and a few other states”, most others have agreed to the CET in principle—to the proposal for a common national examination with effect from 2013 with weightage given to State Board results.As per the understanding, the academic component of the Main and Advanced examinations would be handled by IITs, whereas the management and conduct of the exam would be done by CBSE jointly with State Boards. It is learnt that IITs and other Central Educational Institutions have proposed to adopt a weightage of 40 pc for State Board marks.“Further details for the common examination process would be finalised in the next two months in consultation with States,” he said.Vocational Training Students will get hands-on training on vocational skills including Information-Technology- enabled services, tourism, automobile engineering or hospitality management from class IX onwards.