HYDERABAD : On April 30 a government committee rejected a proposal of private engineering colleges to conduct their own entrance test. The government also turned down a similar proposal by private B.Ed colleges.

The proposals were rejected during a meeting of the Admission and Fee Regulation Committee (AFRC), also known as the Judges Committee. The Consortium of Engineering Colleges Managements Association (CECMA) had announced in March that it would conduct its own online common entrance test. It had cited Supreme Court orders to claim that private colleges are free to conduct their own entrance examination.

The association claimed that it had the support of nearly 200 engineering colleges out of the 314 in the state. 

The AP State Council of Higher Education then asked colleges to apply for recognition to hold separate tests, and received nearly a dozen applications. It asked the colleges to form a consortium. However, minority colleges refused to join the private colleges and students faced the prospect of writing three tests: EAMCET, the one held by minority colleges and the one held by private colleges. 

“The Judges Committee rejected the proposal saying that there can’t be more than two entrance examinations for the same course,” said a senior official. The college association president, Mr U. Malakonda Reddy said, “We were really not keen on 
separate exams. We tried to save time as the Eamcet process is getting delayed every year.”