What could be termed as an unexpected move, close to 600 students aspiring to opt for engineering did not take an IIT seat despite clearing the JEE (Advanced) examination. As a result, the elite group of institutions are now likely to lower the bar for admissions in order to include people from the weaker strata of the society. The IITs will now be admitting students with scores as low as 31 out of 504, or with a percentage of 6.1 so as to fill vacant seats.
The tough standard of the JEE (Advanced) 2015 paper and use of negative marking resulted in less students clearing the cut-off. IITs had to therefore lower the bar for qualifying in the general category from 35 percent to 24.5 percent. As for the reserved categories, it reduced the percentage to 12.25 percent.
A third category is being proposed for students who will be sent for a preparatory course provided they’ve got at least 6.1 percent. The IITs, following the new formula for admissions has apparently already admitted students in the preparatory programme across 18 institutes. Before the students get absorbed into the B.Tech programme, they would be required to go through a one year long preparatory course.
While the qualifying marks are being reduced, 31 students who qualified in JEE (Advanced) and were eligible for seats in the IITs have been rejected after they failed to meet the criteria of Class 12 exams.
The trend seems to have taken a drastic downfall since last year, when a student had to be in the top 20 percentile of their respective boards to be eligible for an IIT seat. This year, the IITs relaxed the criteria by allowing students who had scored at least 75 percent in Class 12 or were in the top 20 percentile of the board. As a result, only 31 students failed to make the cut this time.
[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]