Major relief to the aspiring students of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Main, as the Ministry of Education (MoE) on Tuesday decided that apart from the eligibility criteria of scoring 75 per cent and above in Class 12, students from the top 20 percentile of all boards will be eligible to seek admission based on their JEE-Main score.
According to the JEE-Main information brochure released by the National Testing Agency (NTA), apart from the All-India rank of the candidate in the national entrance test for engineering admissions; the aspirants are also expected to score 75 per cent and above in Class 12 in order to be eligible for admission. For SC/ST candidates, the qualifying aggregate score was declared 65 per cent and above.
As the JEE-Advanced already has this criterion, this part-relaxation also will allow students to compete for seats in prestigious IITs and NITs.
Even as this has always been the eligibility criteria, it was suspended for the past three years from the admissions process held during the pandemic. This was due to lack of uniformity in evaluation practices undertaken by different boards – state as well as national, owing to the pandemic conditions. With resumption of normalcy in board exam evaluation; the original eligibility criteria, too, was resumed. However, this led to opposition from aspiring candidates and parents as many took to Twitterrequesting postponement of the exam, along with removal of the criterion of scoring 75 per cent and above in Class 12 board exam. A PIL was filed in the Bombay High Court seeking to defer the JEE- Main; the plea also sought relaxation in the 75 per cent eligibility criterion.
Eventually, the MoE intervened upon receiving representations for the same. And an additional eligibility criterion is now included, after a meeting on Tuesday. It was decided to include the 20- percentile criteria to ensure that those who may not score 75 per cent and above will not miss out on their opportunity to appear for examination and subsequently participate in the admission process. According to the revised eligibility criteria, apart from their All-India rank in JEE-Main, a student should either have scored 75 percent and above in Class 12 board exam or figured among the top 20 percentile candidates of the respective board. The registration process for JEE-Main ends on January 12. The first session of the national level entrance test is scheduled between January 24 and 31.
