Odishatv Bureau

New Delhi: Against the backdrop of a controversy over the government`s proposal for single entrance test, IIT Directors will meet here tomorrow which will be followed by their meeting with HRD Minister Kapil Sibal next week to address the issue.

The IIT Joint Admission Board, comprising IIT Directors, will discuss the implications of the government`s May 28 announcement under which aspiring candidates for IITs and other central institutes like NITs and IIITs will have to sit from 2013 under a new format of common entrance test which will also take plus-two board results into consideration.

The Board is also expected to deliberate upon the simmering discontent among the faculty of the IITs over the government`s move, sources said. The meeting has been called in the wake of IIT Delhi and Kanpur rejecting the government proposal and deciding to have separate exam. There are indications that IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur may follow their Delhi and Kanpur counterparts.

The meeting assumes significance as it will precede the special meeting of IIT Council, the highest decision-making body headed by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and including Directors of all the 16 IITs, called on June 27 to deliberate on the controversy. The IIT Council will discuss the situation created by the divisions among the elite educational institutions by the government proposal and the future course of action to end uncertainty among the student community, sources said.

There are indications that the IIT directors could also deliberate upon a compromise formula, which is reported to have been sent by the Ministry to them to end the ongoing logjam, at the Joint Admission Board (JAB) meet tomorrow. The JAB has been conducting the IIT entrance test for 50 years. The IITs are opposing the proposed test contending that it will increase stress of students instead of decreasing.

They feel students aspiring to join institutes other than the IITs need not sit for two test -- main and advance -- as proposed by the HRD Ministry. They have also insisted that board examination results should not be taken into consideration while preparing the merit list. Meanwhile, the HRD Ministry in a statement issued today said the special council on June 27 has been called to address the "uncertainty faced by the student community, consequent to the resolutions of the Senates of IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi".

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