In a relief to students aspiring to appear for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main, the Ministry of Education (MoE) on Tuesday decided that apart from the eligibility criteria of scoring 75 per cent and above in class 12 exam, students from the top 20 percentile of all boards will be eligible to seek admission based on their JEE Main score.
As the JEE Advanced already has the same criterion, this part-relaxation will also allow students to compete for seats in across NITs.
According to the JEE Main information brochure released by the National Testing Agency (NTA), apart from the All India Rank (AIR) of the candidate in the national entrance test for engineering admissions, the aspirants are also expected to score 75 percent 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.
Earlier, too, the same criterion was being followed but it was suspended for the past three years due to the Covid 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. Many took to Twitter requesting postponement of the exam, along with requesting removal of this criterion. A PIL was filed in the Bombay High Court to defer the JEE-Main; the plea also sought relaxation in the 75 percent eligibility criterion.
