No Odisha JEE for Engineering from 2014

Odisha will no longer conduct its own JEE (state-level joint entrance examination) in engineering from next year 2014. Authorities decided to adopt the JEE-Main score to select students for admission to tech schools.

Other than Odisha, Gujarat and Maharashtra have also decided to adopt JEE-Main. West Bengal is expected to adopt it from 2015-16.

The JEE-Main, conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), is a selection test for the National Institutes of Technology (NIT) and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT). It is also the first filter for the Indian Institutes of Technology – the top 1.5 lakh students are allowed to take the JEE-Advanced test for admission into the IITs.

The Joint Entrance Examination-Main (JEE -Main) will be conducted across the country in the first half of April 2014. While the offline examination will be conducted on April 6, the online examination will be conducted on April 9, 11, 12 and 19.

State governments conduct their own JEE for admission into government and private engineering colleges in the respective state. The Union HRD ministry, which last year brought reforms to the engineering entrance tests conducted by the CBSE and the IITs, pushed JEE-Main as the national exam and asked all states to adopt it.

Gujarat, Odisha and Maharashtra have 163, 190 and 679 engineering colleges respectively. Former Odisha JEE chairperson Deva Tripathy welcomed the state’s decision.

“The CBSE has assured that they will bring out the national merit list and also a state level merit list. The students who figure in the state-level merit list and miss out on the national merit list will be eligible for admission in engineering colleges in the concerned state,” secretary of the Odisha Private Engineering College Association, Binod Dash, said.