TS mulls separate EAMCET exams

Telangana officials have the wherewithal to make exams fool-proof

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is keen to conduct not only the Intermediate examinations, but also separate EAMCET examinations for Engineering, Pharmacy and Medical streams. If everything goes well, it would implement this from this academic year, according to official sources.

According to sources in the Intermediate Board, the government sees no difficulty in determining the final merit of students of the two States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, since the IITs conduct Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for 29 States of the country. Apart from the JEE model where ‘percentile system’ is used and 40 percent weightage is given to marks obtained in the Intermediate Board examinations, the Telangana government is contemplating use of the process of ‘normalisation’ for making Intermediate Board exam marks of AP and Telangana students ‘comparable’.

However, Intermediate Board officials belonging to Andhra Pradesh cite the experience of recent EAMCET counselling and call for caution in proceeding to hold a separate examination for Telangana students.

On their part, Telangana officials are keen to have a separate Intermediate exam and claim that they have the wherewithal ready to make the exam fool-proof. “Just like the IITs calculate the rank by a percentile system that includes marks in the intermediate examination, the merit of students for common admissions between AP and Telangana can be determined in a similar manner,” a senior official of Telangana said.

“In determining the final rank for admissions into IITs, the JEE takes into consideration marks of not only the optional subjects, but also marks of languages. If the JEE system can determine the rank by including even languages, we can do it for two States,” he said.

Officials also cite ‘mutual mistrust’ as the reason for going for a separate Inter exam, over and above the technicalities involved. “Every year, about 18 to 19 lakh students of AP and Telangana sit for Intermediate examinations.

Who should set the question papers commonly for them? Where the printing of these question papers to be done? Something can go wrong in these matters. In such a situation, separate examinations are the only way,” Telangana official of the Inter Board said.

While the Telangana government sees ‘common admissions’ as provided in the AP Reorganisation Act as a matter confined to ‘top 15 percent in open category,’ the AP government interprets it as a law that empowers it to conduct the Inter and EAMCET exams for the next ten years.