Mumbai: The Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) has recommended that the Class XII board marks, not be considered for admissions to all central engineering institutes, other than IITs, from next year or by 2017. Only the JEE (Main) scores will be utilized for the purpose. It means, the 40% weightage given to Class XII scores for admissions to NITs and other GFTIs (other than IITs) may be scrapped. The CSAB, which is part of the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA), will be making the recommendation in this year’s admission report.
The recommendation has to be accepted by the ministry of human resource development. It has also recommended that the competitive exam be held a little earlier next year, for authorities say that additional time is required for the admission process. The recommendation comes in the wake of delay in submission of Class XII scores by boards to the CBSE and glitches in the scores of some students during this year’s admission process.
While the CSAB, as part of their JoSAA report, will recommend the change, the Joint Entrance Examination Apex Board has also set up a sub-committee to review the process of allotting JEE (Main) ranks. Class XII scores were taken into account to calculate the JEE (Main) ranks since 2012, when the two-tier exam process (JEE Main and JEE Advanced) was introduced for the first time. After three years of implementation, the apex board will be reviewing the process introduced to control the proliferation of private coaching institutes in the country.
Ashok Misra, chairperson of the JEE Apex Board, confirmed that the sub-committee will assess the process of calculating the JEE (Main) ranks — the 60-40 weightage given to the Main and Class XII scores — and submit its report soon.
M P Singh, coordinator of the Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) from NIT-Patna, who was part of the JoSAA 2015, said: “Many of the 47 higher secondary boards in the country are not sending their scores on time to the CBSE. Some of them are not submitting it in the pro format given by the board, leading to discrepancies. Keeping in mind students’ interests, we will be asking the apex body to conduct admissions only on the basis of the JEE (Main) scores.”
The first-ever joint seat allocation process was delayed by almost a week this year as the CBSE did not get Class XII scores from all boards on time. Instead of June 25, the process began on July 1, leading to a delay in the academic session at the premier institutes.
Another JoSAA official said, “There were some students whose marks were higher than what they actually scored in their Class XII. Such students managed to get a seat on the basis of the ‘hiked’ score in the joint seat allocation process. This came to light only during the document-verification step, when it was too late to make changes.” He added, “Though the number of such cases was not very high, some of the deserving candidates may have lost out on their merit seat due to such discrepancies.”
