Entrance tests for admission into undergraduate medical and engineering colleges are likely to be held twice a year from 2019, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Upendra Kushwaha told the Lok Sabha on Monday, PTI reported.
The Centre is in the process of setting up a National Testing Agency, which would conduct the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical colleges and the Joint Entrance Examination for engineering courses.
“The exams will be conducted online at least twice a year, thereby giving an adequate opportunity to the candidates to bring out their best,” Kushwaha said. He added that the agency would locate the examination centres at sub-district and district levels.
To begin with, the agency will hold exams currently conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education but other tests will be included in its ambit gradually, the Centre had said in November. The agency is expected to bring in “high reliability, standardised assessing aptitude” and conduct tamper-proof exams.
The agency will be autonomous and self-sustaining, the Centre had said. The National Testing Agency will get a one-time central grant of Rs 25 crore to conduct its examinations. Thereafter, the government said the agency will become financially “self-sustainable”.
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