AICTE moots common entrance exam for engineering on lines on NEET; Kerala welcomes suggestion

The Kerala government has responded favourably to the Centre’s suggestion for a common entrance examination similar to National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for engineering admissions, The Times of India reported. On Thursday, the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) suggested a single entrance examination model, like the NEET, for medical courses and has asked states to share their reviews. [caption id=“attachment_4275941” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Kerala is the only state that has approved of AICTE’s decision till now, Times Now said. In March 2017, the HRD ministry had said that it may introduce a common engineering examination if the NEET model is successful. However, in August 2017, the AICTE dropped its plans of having a common entrance exam for engineering. On 18 September, the Supreme Court had directed the Tamil Nadu government to prevent any agitation over the NEET exam issue in the state, where protests had intensified after  the suicide  of a Dalit medical aspirant. A student, Anitha, had committed suicide on 1 September, a week after the top court had ruled that medical college admissions in Tamil Nadu will be based on the national admission test. Her suicide led to  widespread protests  in Tamil Nadu with many protesters being detained. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is likely to release the official notification for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2018 application form in the last week of January. With inputs from PTI