The joint entrance examination (JEE) for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is likely to become history from 2013 as the central government Tuesday decided to work on a common entrance test for all government engineering colleges.

'By 2013, we should have in place a common system for common admission into professional institutions in the country,' Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said Tuesday after meeting at least 20 school education boards from across the country.

Explaining the situation, HRD ministry joint secretary S.C. Khuntia said: 'We will work for a common entrance test for every stream. One examination for all engineering institutions, which means IITs will also follow it.'

'In that parameter, there should not be any separate IIT entrance,' Khuntia told IANS. 'Lets see, we have to work in that direction.'

'As per the score of the entrance, selection will be made. Let's say, the top rankers may go to IITs, the second bests will go to institutions which are a step below the IITs...so on,' Khuntia elaborated. 'The system will benefit the students most.'

After the meeting with school boards, Sibal said: ‘We will be working towards a single entrance examination in 2013. We are setting up a task force for that.’ Explaining the situation, the minister said there will be single entrance for each stream. For example, admission to all medical courses may take place through one entrance examination and all engineering admissions through another common entrance.

Sibal said the task force would decide how to go about it and look into issues like the weightage the Class 12 board examination result will have in the admission procedure.

-- IANS