The Centre has decided to go ahead with its decision to conduct the Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test (Iseet) from 2013 as had been announced earlier. Andhra Pradesh and several other states had objected to the scrapping the IIT-JEE and AIEEE and replacing them with the single national common entrance test. This year’s batch will thus be the last batch of students who will take IIT-JEE and AIEEE and Andhra Pradesh will have to abolish Eamcet for engineering admissions from the year 2013.

The decision was taken on Wednesday in the States Education Ministers’ Conference convened by the Union ministry of HRD in New Delhi to arrive at a “consensus” regarding holding Iseet, which will also carry a weightage of 40 per cent marks secured in 10+2 exams.

Deputy chief minister Damodar Raja Narasimha, who also holds the portfolio of Higher Education, had urged the Centre to hold Iseet from 2014 to enable students who had taken admissions in 10+2 courses last academic year (2011-12) to appear for IIT-JEE and AIEEE in 2013 as usual. In view of Centre’s decision to conduct Iseet from 2013, deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha, who holds the portfolio of higher education, argued that any change in the exam pattern should be informed to the students two years in advance so that the fresh batch of students taking admissions in 10+2 courses in the coming academic year 2012-13 could prepare for Iseet accordingly.

“There will be no IIT-JEE and AIEEE next year. We have decided to replace them with Iseet. States will be persuaded to adopt Iseet even for admissions to engineering colleges under their jurisdiction. For this purpose, Iseet will be held in regional languages too,” Ms Daggupati Purandeswari told reporters after the meeting.

As of now, the Iseet to be conducted in 2013 will only cover the 15 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), four Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research
(IISERs) and few deemed universities which come under the purview of the HRD Ministry.

A candidate must score above 40 per cent in Class XII Board examination to be eligible. However, the weightage, accorded to the performance in Class XII, can go up to 100 per cent.

The combined weightage for the Main and the Advance paper under Iseet shall not, in any case, exceed 60 per cent. It is for the individual educational institutions or the state government to decide on the weightage to be accorded to the scores in Class XII, Main and Advance examinations. Iseet-2013 will be conducted in two parts, Main and Advance, in April or May 2013. The exams will be of three-hour durations each and will be held on a single day.