Minister for Higher Education K.T. Jaleel told the Assembly on Wednesday that the government was thinking of conducting engineering entrance examinations on the online platform.
Replying to a question by R. Ramachandran and E.K. Vijayan, Geetha Gopi, and V.R. Sunil Kumar, the Minister said the entrance tests for both three-year and five-year LLB courses were successfully conducted online this year. The government has directed all universities to explore the option of conducting online entrance examinations for all its courses, Dr. Jaleel added.
Dr. Jaleel spoke about the changes brought in the engineering education sector. These include reducing the pass credits from 182 to 162, reducing the minimum pass marks from 45 to 40, doing away with the minimum mark stipulation for internal exams so that theory, internal marks and university exam marks may be considered together for a pass in the exam.
Reforms
From this academic year, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University will give grace marks to students for excellence in sports and arts. It has also been decided to conduct practical exams at the university level, rather than at the individual college level, Dr. Jaleel said. Engineering degrees will now be given in three categories, BTech Honours, BTech Minor, and BTech. By 2020-21, engineering colleges will also give BVoc degrees, wherein the course would have reduced theory content and the accent would be on helping the student acquire vocational skills.