Poll day clashes with entrance test

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) seems to be in a fix following the announcement of the general elections schedule. The polling date, May 10, is clashing with one of the dates on which the Board was to conduct its All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE).
While three papers of the AIEEE exams have been scheduled for May 9, the fourth paper is to be held on May 10.More than 4.5 lakh students are to appear for the exam this year across 600 centres in 102 cities including Dubai and Bahrain. The entrance exam forms the admission eligibility criteria for engineering, pharmacy and architecture courses being offered by a large number of institutions across the country.
The test is said to have become even more crucial this year in wake of the the University Grants Commission’s latest regulations. The UGC has declared that admissions to engineering, architecture and pharmacy courses at all universities in the country are to be made through AIEEE from the 2004 academic session.
With all other Sundays in May being already ‘‘booked’’ by other entrance exams, Board officials seem to have been caught in a Catch 22 situation.
‘‘We can not prepone the exam as no Sunday is free. Postponing it beyond May 23 on which the IIT joint entrance exam is to be held, will create chaos as that is the time Board results are generally announced and university admissions start,’’ said a senior CBSE official.
Officials say that they are now virtually caught between the frying pan and the the fire.
‘‘The Board had announced its examinations dates a long time ago. Authorities at the election commission should have taken important examinations into account before drawing up the election schedule,’’ said said another official.
The fourth paper on architecture aptitude scheduled for May 10, is to be taken by more than 75,000 candidates.