The State will not conduct the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) for engineering from next year as it has been decided to adopt the national-level JEE-Main score to select students for admission to engineering colleges. After Gujarat, Odisha and Maharashtra are the takers for the national-level exam.
The JEE-Main, conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), is a selection test for the National Institutes of Technology (NIT) and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT). Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) chooses top 1.5 lakh students from the JEE-Main for the JEE-Advanced test in order to give the meritorious students a chance to read in the IITs.
The JEE (Main)-2014 will be held in April 6, a senior CBSE official said. The State Government reserved 70 per cent seats for the students of the respective State, said the official sources said. Students can appear examination online. A student would get two ranks- State rank and national rank. If the students figure in the State-level merit list and miss out on the national merit list will be eligible for admission in engineering colleges in the concerned State, official sources said.
The secretary of the Odisha Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) Binod Dash said the decision would help students and parents as they will appear for just one entrance. The CBSE will provide the JEE-Main results to the state. If the state wants to give weightage to the school board score, it can do so, the CBSE official said.