Thiruvananthapuram: The new regulations for the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) for admissions to IITs and other central institutions have opened up a debate on two major changes in the eligibility criteria. One was on making Aadhaar card compulsory for applying for the examinations and the second is not to consider plus two marks for ranking in admission to central institutions. The circular, which is available on www.jeemain.nic.in, says that "candidates are advised to ensure that their Aadhaar card has correct details, as per school records. If there is some mismatch in these details, the candidates should immediately get it corrected in Aadhaar data or their respective school records."
Technology activist Anivar Aravind pointed out that Parliament passed Aadhaar Bill as a money bill. It was named Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, introduced by the finance ministry and its aim, as suggested by the name, was specified as to streamlining the distribution of subsidies. "The decision to make it compulsory for an entrance examination is dubious especially since the Supreme Court has made clear that Aadhaar is voluntary," Mr Aravind said. Class 12 marks have not been factor for determining the rankings in JEE for admissions to IITs but had a 40 per cent weightage for undergraduate engineering courses in Central institutions such as national institutes of technology (NITs) since 2013. As per the new norm, they will have no weightage from this year.
However, the Class 12 scores will be a crucial parameter for determining a candidate's eligibility criteria for the examination from 2017 onwards. Students will need to have at least 75 per cent marks or be in top 20 percentile in Class 12 examination. Students belonging to the schedule cast or schedule tribe category must have at least 65 per cent marks. Former joint commissioner for entrance examinations Rajoo Krishnan told Deccan Chronicle that now also marks for the class 12 was not considered for IIT ranking. However, rank list for NITs and other central institutions were considering plus two marks also for their rank list. "This has come under criticism as many felt that there were problems in equating the marks of different boards," Mr Krishnan said.
Roshan Vinod, a class XII student who plans to write the entrance examinations said that it was better that the ranks are prepared based only on the entrance marks. For example, in the state entrance examinations students in the state syallabus get the advantage when equal weightage is given to plus two marks and entrance examination marks, Mr Vinod said. Hitesh Nair, a standard XI, also said that it was better to consider only the marks of entrance examinations for IIT admissions. "This would help students to concentrate more on the entrance examinations," he said. The decision of the JEE to do away with class 12 examination marks has opened up the old debate on doing away with giving weightage to the plus two marks in state engineering admissions.
Kochi-based urologist Dr N K Sanil Kumar who has been following the entrance examinations for several years said that there was a feeling that it gave advantage to students studying plus two in state syllabus over other syllabuses in engineering admission. If the central agencies can do away with the normalisation process, the state should also think of doing away with plus two mark criteria for engineering entrance examinations, he said. “The government should also think of regulating the admission to engineering colleges by prescribing mark parameters for determining the ranks,” Dr Kumar said.
Apply for JEE from December 1
The online application process for the Joint Entrance Examinations for IITs, NITs and other central institutions will start on December, 1, 2016. The last date for application is January 2, 2017. The fee can be paid up to January 3, 2017. The JEE (Main) exam will be conducted across the country on April 2, 2017. Candidates need to fill Aadhaar number, name, date of birth and gender that are present in Aadhaar Card.
The details will be verified from UIDAI and in case of any mismatch the application will be rejected. Candidates whose date of birth falls on or after 1st October, 1997 (for general and OBC candidate) are eligible to apply. If candidates belong to reserved category like SC, ST and PwD category, then the date of birth falls on or after 1st October, 1987 are eligible for JEE main application.
