AP awaits centres Iseet modalities

HYDERABAD: With the Union HRD ministry making it optional for the states to introduce Iseet in place of their respective common entrance tests for admission to engineering colleges, the AP government will take a decision on doing away with Eamcet once it gets the modalities of the national engineering entrance test from the Centre.During the state education ministers' meet in New Delhi on Wednesday, the HRD ministry decided to go ahead by introducing Iseet from 2013 replacing IIT-JEE and AIEEE.Though all states have been advised to follow Iseet, they would not be forced to cancel their respective engineering tests.However, the IITs, NITs, IIITs and all central-funded institutions have to mandatorily take the score into consideration for admissions from 2013.The HRD officials said the move was intended to reduce the stress on students.According to them, there are about 150 engineering tests in the country.Principal secretary to Higher Education MG Gopal, who accompanied higher education minister and deputy chief minister Damodara Rajanarisimha to the education ministers' meet, told Express that the HRD ministry also gave an option to the states to increase the weightage to 10+2 marks up to 100 per cent, from a minimum of 40 per cent