IIT entrance goes online from 2014

Engineering aspirants time to brush up your online test skills, as IITs and other Central Engineering schools are all set to ditch the old pen and paper format in a bid to computerize completely centrally conducted Engineering tests.

 If recent reports are to be believed, the human resource development (HRD) ministry and the Central Board of Secondary Education are in search for a firm to audit their preparedness for the switch.

If the audit concludes that the board and government are ready for the move endorsed by HRD minister MM Pallam Raju, the computerized version of entrance test could be rolled out as early as 2014.

The audit will check 300 identified centres, across 28 Indian cities and Singapore, Kathmandu and Colombo, where computerized tests are planned. At these centres, auditors will check the infrastructure — CCTV surveillance, power backup, 20% additional desktops, standby servers, air-conditioning and access control measures.

In a bid to ensure a flawless online test format, the auditors will assess software security and will ensure rigorous security arrangements to prevent question paper leaks. The aim is to upload question papers on a central server and then issue passwords for access to the server to officials in charge of centres through a text message on the very day of the examination.

If all goes well, India might witness the big leap in centrally based Engineering entrance tests’ format.

However, all said and done, it would not be wrong to say that a computerized test for a whopping 15,00,000 students seeking admissions to the IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other central engineering schools each year is unlikely to be an easy task.