Year 2012 will be known as the year that kept lakhs of students on tenterhooks with the announcement of new national-level common entrance tests by the Centre for admissions to elite institutions such as IITs, NITs, IIITs and medical and dental colleges.

Another notable feature of 2012 was that the state government burdened parents by increasing the fees for engineering, pharmacy, MBA and MCA courses. It announced college-wise differential fees for these courses for the first time, unlike the earlier policy of fixing uniform fees for all colleges.

Students, parents and teachers were tense and confused throughout the year with the constant flipflops over introduction of new national-level common entrance tests such as Iseet, Neet-UG, Neet-PG, JEE (Main) and JEE (Advanced).

The confusion surrounding the Joint Entrance Exam (Main) and Joint Entrance Exam (Advanced) finally ended with the Central Board of Secondary Education officially announcing their schedule last month, but for most of the year, students and parents were in the dark.

JEE (Main) and JEE (Advanced) have replaced the more than a decade-old AIEEE and IIT-JEE respectively. However, there is still a lot of confusion about the pattern of new tests and the selection procedure.

Interestingly, the marks secured in 10+2 exams are being given utmost priority in national-level tests for the first time this year. It was decided to give 40 per cent weightage to 10+2 marks in JEE (Main). This would mean 10+2 marks will play a decisive role in selection of students for admission to elite institutes such as IITs and NITs.

The confusion surrounding Neet-UG and Neet-PG for undergraduate and postgraduate medical and
dental courses still persists with the Supreme Court yet to deliver its final judgment on the applicability of the new tests.

AP has been seeking exemption from Neet and has been fighting a legal battle with the Medical Council of India (MCI) all through the year. Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy wrote a series of letters to the Centre seeking exemption, but in vain.

With no response from MCI, AP approached the High Court and Supreme Court on this issue. While the High Court stayed Neet in AP, the Supreme Court is expected to deliver its verdict in the third week of January 2013.

School education too has become more expensive.

Fees in schools shot up in 2012 as managements cited increased operational costs of 20 per cent to 50 per cent.

The steep rise in petrol and diesel prices this year further added to the woes of parents with schools increasing transport charges significantly.
Poor students quota still a non-starter The 25 per cent quota for poor students in private schools under the Right to Education Act remains a non-starter even in 2012, despite the Act coming into force in 2010.
The government is still dilly-dallying over implementing the quota citing financial constraints.