Government opts for new statistical methodology

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Government has opted for ‘global mean’ and ‘global standard deviation’ statistical entities to set base for its new  engineering rank list formula.The changes in the normalisation process was initiated by the Commissioner for Entrance Examination (CEE) following the controversy last year, where it was alleged that the normalisation methodology favoured students from the Kerala Higher Secondary Board.While the formula would remain the same, under the new statistical methodology, the marks of the students who have passed the qualifying examination (Plus-II) in the Kerala Higher Secondary, Kerala VHSE, CBSE and ICSE during the four-year period from 2009 to 2012, would be calculated first. The global deviation would be the standard deviation of the final-year marks during the period 2009-2012. Last year, the scores of each board were mapped against the Kerala Higher Secondary Board scores leading to resentment among students of other Boards.The new decisions were announced and the prospectus of the entrance examination for the Kerala Medical/ Agricultural/ Veterinary/ Fisheries/ Engineering/ Architecture degree courses 2012 was released by Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb here on Wednesday.The 50:50 combination, which means the marks of the entrance examination and the marks of the qualifying examination, would be used to determine the rank list, like last year.It is the expert committee, led by Prof Debashish Sengupta of Kolkata Statistical Institute, who vetted the recommendations submitted by the state-appointed statistics experts committee. The recommendations were approved by the government.The submission of the applications has been made online for the first time. Applications could be filed through Akshaya centres too. A citizen call centre has been activated at the office of CEE to answer queries related to the prospectus or application methods. The security cards, which are needed for online application, would be available through 160 selected post-offices. The submission of applications will begin on January 19 and will be on till Feb 14.The printout of the online application and supporting documents should reach the office of the CEE by 5 p.m. on Feb 15.The Engineering/Medical Entrance Examinations will be held from April 23 to 26 at the 300 centres in the state apart from centres in Delhi and Dubai.