The central government may soon announce a policy to introduce an online examination system for all government-controlled competitive examinations.
Entrance examinations for admission to various courses may also go online.
Indicating this, human resources development minister Murli Manohar Joshi, who was in Ahmedabad on Sunday as part of his two-day election campaign tour of Gujarat, said the new dates for the pre-medical entrance test will be announced next week. The examination, scheduled to be held on Sunday, had been postponed after the question paper was leaked.
Stating that there was a need to preserve the credibility of various competitive examinations that are being held in the country, Joshi said, "The government is considering introducing an online examination system for competitive tests. This will ensure that the question papers are not leaked. A lot of other issues connected with the present system of examination will also be solved. A policy announcement will have to be made in this regard before we finally introduce the new online system."
Though he did not specify any date for introducing the new examination system, it has been learnt that if the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance comes back to power after the coming Lok Sabha elections, it will implement the new system soon.
The question papers for the common admission test to the management institutes in November had also leaked, forcing the government to postpone the examination.
"The pre-medical entrance re-test is expected to take place next week," Joshi said.
Referring to the controversy involving his ministry and the Indian Institutes of Management, Joshi said these institutes are government institutions.
Joshi reached Rajkot this morning to take part in the election campaign for BJP. He earlier addressed a rally at Suratdeval in Chotila taluka of Surendranagar district from where he left for Vadodara.
After talking with reporters, he addressed a public meeting late in the evening.
Joshi will leave for Surat on Monday where he will meet the representatives of industries in the South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Joshi will also address a public meeting at Udhna in the evening before leaving for Delhi. Joshi, who was expected to have a meeting with the Chief Minister Narendra Modi, however, could not make it because Modi had a busy schedule.
He had to attend a number of public meetings, mostly covering the constituency of the deputy prime minister L K Advani.
