Chennai: The IIT Council, headed by HRD minister Smriti Zubin Irani, has good news for IIT aspirants. From the ensuing academic year, the IIT will allow students who secure 75 per cent or above marks in their board exam along with those who are in the top 20 percentile of their school boards, for counselling at IITs. This will help many students from states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to get into the premier institute.
As per the present norms, a student who gets through the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) (Advanced) also needs to be in the top 20 percentile of his or her school board to finally get an admission into IIT. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 48th IIT Council meet in Chennai, Ashok Thakur, secretary to the Union human resource development ministry, said that the council deliberated at length and decided that students who scored 75 per cent in their board exams would also become eligible for admission counselling in the IITs, the last step before securing a seat. Students from general, OBC and Non Creamy Layer categories needed to secure 75 per cent marks and SC/ ST persons with disability had to score 70 per cent or above aggregate marks in board exams, whichever was lower, to be eligible for admission into IIT.
“Last year, about 200 students had secured top scores in JEE (Advanced) but they could not get an admission in IIT, with the 20 percentile criterion, but now in addition to the percentile formula you also have the marks secured. This gives tremendous amount of relief to parents,” he said. Students from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala were worst hit with the top 20-percentile formula as the cut-off used to be around 90 per cent or above, making it difficult for a student to be in the top 20 percentile.
Welcoming the IIT Council’s decision, V. Ragul, an IIT aspirant, said that this would help Tamil Nadu students as teachers in the state awarded marks generously, with which only a few students could get a chance to enter IIT. “As the council has reduced the cut-off marks to 75 per cent more aspirants from Tamil Nadu will now be able to get admission into IIT,” he said.
