NEET-like entrance exam for all courses on cards: Javadekar

After the success of the NEET exams, the Centre is planning a ‘One Nation, One Exam’ formula for all the streams that have entrance tests.

This was announced by Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on Friday on the sidelines of a function at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). The ‘One Nation, One Exam’ formula aims at replacing entrance tests for different courses across India with a single exam for each stream.

He also said that the government would give institutions like IIMs more autonomy. “There is a proposal for a new bill with regards to IIMs to give more autonomy to these institutes in line with the IITs and NITs. The IIMs would have more power and would be able to offer graduate and postgraduate degrees to their students. Currently, IIMs cannot do so as these are registered as societies,” Javadekar said.

The education minister said that he has called a meeting of chairmen and directors of all the IIMs on Tuesday in Shillong to review the functioning of institutes and overall education system, including the contentious issue of reservations in recruitment of faculty in IIMs. “The expansion of education is almost done. Today, from KG (kindergarten) to PG (post-graduate) level, there are 27 crore students. Now the main objective is improvement in its quality,” he said.

“I am visiting different educational institutions and discussing with faculties and teachers on how the education system can be improved. On the basis of it, the central government would form a comprehensive education policy,” said the minister.

He said the draft of the new education policy would be finalised and put before the Cabinet after due consultations with experts in the field of education. He, however, did not give any specific time frame for it.