The National Institutes of Technology today embraced a new admission procedure with provision for 40 per cent weightage to board marks normalised through a percentile-based formula found unsuitable for IITs.
The NIT Council, headed by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, decided that the institutes would follow a 40:60 weightage formula to board marks and JEE-Main scores to select students for 20,000 seats in B.Tech courses.
The aspirants will not have to take the JEE-Advanced test, as reported by The Telegraphon June 26.
Unlike the IITs, the NITs could not protest against the percentile-based procedure to be followed to give a normalised score to a student based on his/her performance in a board exam vis-à-vis other boards.
The same procedure was pushed for the IITs but faculty members objected, saying the percentile-based normalisation was unsuitable for comparing and establishing parity in scores of students of different boards given the variation in evaluation and assessment methods.
The IIT and NIT councils had a joint meeting on May 28 in which they agreed to give differential weightage to board marks for their admission from 2013. But in its June 27 meeting, the IIT Council dropped weightage to board marks in the preliminary screening.
The IIT Council decided it would select 1.5 lakh students appearing for JEE-Main on the basis of their performance, These students would have to appear for JEE-Advanced, a separate test to be conducted by IITs on a separate date. The merit list for admissions to IITs would be drawn on the basis of the all-India rank in JEE Advanced, provided such candidates were in the top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their boards in applicable categories.
On May 28, the NIT Council decided that the institutes would give 40 per cent weightage to board marks and 30 per cent weightage each to JEE-Main and JEE-Advanced, which were supposed to be held on a single day.
“Since the IIT Council decided to hold the JEE-Advanced on a separate date, the NIT Council felt that the NITs should not follow two-round entrance tests because it will add to the stress of students. They will follow one test, the JEE-Main, and 40 per cent weightage to board marks,” a source said.
The NIT Council also decided to set up a committee comprising some NIT directors, the CBSE chairperson and other experts to look into issues relating to normalisation of Class XII board marks on percentile basis.
The council members resolved to facilitate implementation of the new admission policy in close co-ordination with the CBSE.
The HRD ministry will hold a meeting with the Indian Institutes of Information Technology to decide their admission policy.
Source: THE TELEGRAPH
