The National Institute of Technology Council — apex decision making body of NITs in the country — has formed a three-member committee to suggest ways and modalities for introducing new reforms in the entrance exams for all its 20 NITs as they were concerned over mushrooming of private coaching institutions for pre-engineering students and growing dependence of students on them for cracking the entrance examinations,. This is a similar to the measure introduced by the IITs.

The panel will be headed by MNNIT director. The other two members include NIT-Calicut director Prof GRC Reddy and NIT-Agartala director Prof Probir Kumar Bose. The decision to form the panel was taken during the recent meet of NIT directors in New Delhi. It was chaired by Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal.

Prof A B Samaddar, director of Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) said that as of now the All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) enabled aspiring engineers to gain entry into NITs. But it was observed that the coaching institutes created hype about the entrance test projecting it as a puzzle rather than examination which could not be cleared without their guidance.

Prof Samaddar, the convener of NIT Vision statement draft committee, said that several suggestions were extended by the NIT directors during the meeting. These included steps to make class 12 examination more relevant to the admission process. He said that the idea is to strengthen the education mechanism of Class 12 which will automatically develop students capable of qualifying the entrance examination. He also said that the council felt that coaching institutes have virtually destroyed the initiative on the part of students to secure higher marks in entrance examinations. Instead, they focus on qualifying the exam only.

In a matter of 3 months a report will be submitted by the panel. Besides reviewing the examination structure, it will also look at the possibility of online exam, in addition to the regular pen and paper test being conducted at present. The committee will also examine the reasons behind the growing trend of seats lying vacant across NITs despite several rounds of counselling.

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