Karnataka planning to make CET a computer-based test: Sudhakar

Bengaluru The State government is mulling over holding the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET), the gateway to professional courses in the State, electronically on computers. “The government is seriously considering making the CET, a computer-based test (CBT). A few States, including Maharashtra have already been conducting their common entrance tests in the CBT mode. We have studied the Maharashtra model. Conducting KCET in the CBT mode needs more infrastructure. A final decision in this regard will be taken after considering the availability of infrastructure and the proficiency of rural students to handle this,” said Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar, who also is the Chairman of Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA).

The State government is mulling over holding the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (CET), the gateway to professional courses in the State, electronically on computers.

“The government is seriously considering making the CET, a computer-based test (CBT). A few States, including Maharashtra, have already been conducting their common entrance tests in the CBT mode. We have studied the Maharashtra model. Conducting CET in the CBT mode needs more infrastructure. A final decision in this regard will be taken after considering the availability of infrastructure and the proficiency of rural students to handle this,” said Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar, who also is the Chairman of Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA).

The Minister noted that if the CET were to be held in the CBT mode, the State government would have to invest more in the infrastructure and the available resources should also be effectively utilised. He noted that a presentation by an agency that conducted the CBT in Maharashtra had been reviewed.

Commenting on the controversy that plagued CET-2024, when 50 questions across four subjects were ruled ‘out of syllabus’ and not considered for students’ assessment, Dr. Sudhakar said that from the next year, students would have to answer even those questions that are not in the syllabus, but require application of mind, in the CET.

“CET is a competitive examination for admission to professional courses and not a board examination to stick to the syllabus strictly. The KEA will issue certain guidelines even for the paper setters. We will put details of this in the public domain for CET-2025, if there are objections let the stakeholders submit them,” he said.

“The higher officials at the KEA were not aware of the rationalisation of the NCERT syllabus for PUC courses and it led to confusion this year. We will be taking measures not to repeat such mistakes in future,” he said, adding that a committee headed by retired IAS officer Narasimharaju has been formed to study the entire CET structure and will recommend changes.

The KEA will soon come out with a mobile application that will give information about filling CET application, as several students, particularly those in rural areas, fill out their online applications at cyber centres and make errors while entering their information, Dr. Sudhakar said. He said going ahead, the aim was to have the CET applications filled out at the college level.