Another Blunder of CSAB:Special Round Allotment Put on Hold

LATEST NOTICE

Result published on 18th August 2015 stands cancelled. The revised allotment for special round of counselling will be published on 20th August 2015 (12:00 Noon),
 thereafter candidates may report to allotted Institute with new allotment letter.

The special round for admissions to NITs, IIITs and other government-funded technical institutes (GFTIs) was a disaster as the Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) was forced to withdraw the allotment results on Tuesday, a day after they were released. The revised allotments will be displayed by noon on August 20. On Monday, the board allotted seats to over 5,000 students. By midnight, it got over 1,000 mails from aggrieved students who had already been admitted to institutes but ended up with seats lower on their preferences` list due to a "technical problem". The number of affected students could be way higher as close to 1.5 lakh aspirants had registered for the round. 
Source: NYOOZ.com

As per the notice put on the website
A new result will be published on 20th August for all.CSAB 2015 has analysed the queries raised by large number of candidates who had taken admission in different NITs, IIITs, GFTIs through JoSAA counselling and again participated in Special round of CSAB-2015. It was found that such candidates have selected SLIDE and then selected the option namely, ”MODIFY YOUR CHOICES” without understanding the implications of the same. As a result willingness option changed to FLOAT mode automatically with the modified choices. This has resulted in migration to other institutes. 
All the candidates who had taken admission in different NITs, IIITs, GFTIs through JoSAA counselling and again participated in Special round of CSAB-2015, are advised to reconfirm their willingness (SLIDE/FLOAT/FREEZE) onCSAB 2015 by 8:00 AM on 20th August 2015.

CBSE CLASS X Boards Likely To Return

The Class X Board exams are likely to be back in CBSE schools as the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) committee may recommend changes in the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) scheme. The committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the new education policy.

It is also likely to take a final call on the "no detention policy" in schools. The CABE committee in 2012, headed by then Haryana education minister Geeta Bhukkal, had recommended scrapping the policy as it believed it affected "learning outcomes". Many states have raised concern about the policy under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act.

The CABE committee will also deliberate on extension of the RTE Act to pre-school as well as secondary education.

This would be the first meeting of the highest advisory body on education since the NDA government came to power. The committee was reconstituted in June with 19 nominated members. The 63rd meeting will also discuss the increasing weight of schools bags and status of NCC and NSS in schools and colleges.

Sources in the human resource development ministry said the government has not made any major policy changes in school education so far and has been tinkering with the same introduced by the previous government. The meeting is also likely to make a start on the new education policy.

"The ministry has also prepared a note on the CCE system, primarily analyzing its shortcomings. This was done after consulting school principals and other stakeholders," said a senior ministry official.

Meanwhile, CBSE's problem-solving assessment now may be asked to be conducted at Classes V and VIII instead of Classes IX and XI. CABE is also likely to recommend certain changes in the CCE, like two term-end exams-one to be conducted by the board and other by schools.

Source: TOI

Special Round : Detailed Statistics

At the end of the special round that concluded on Tuesday, only 195 seats are vacant in NITs, IIITs and other government-funded technical institutions. The Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) filled over 95% of the 5,550 vacant seats in these central institutes after receiving 1.5 lakh applications. Officials claimed that it was probably the least seats ever vacant in NITs and other institutes covered under the CSAB. 

For the first time, IITs and NITs held a joint seat allocation process this year for admissions. While IITs filled most seats by the end of the third round, NITs and other central institutes had around 5,550 vacant seats after four rounds. To fill the vacancies, the ministry of human resources & development decided to conduct a special round. After a preliminary analysis by NITs, officials felt that having a withdrawal option after every round in the joint process would have probably helped reduce the vacancies. 

Asok De, director of NIT-Patna and chairman of CSAB, said, "This year, since the withdrawal option was not available, many students allotted seats (not first choices) still took admission and blocked it till the fourth round. Later, when they got admission elsewhere, in state institutes or other leading ones, they left it." De added that if students were allowed to withdraw, these seats would have been available for students in subsequent rounds. But, he added, this is a preliminary observation and the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) will have to study the repercussions of providing the withdrawal option before recommending it in its report. 

Of the 1.5 lakh students registered for the special round, only 2,300 were new; the others were also part of the four rounds of JoSAA and did not take seats for many reasons. Two of the 67 institutes which were part of CSAB refused to participate in the special round. "The 195 seats are vacant only because no student applied for them. The first joint seat allocation process was successful this year," said De. 

After the four rounds of JoSAA, NITs and other central technical institutes had filled 17,793 seats. Of these, 14,072 students did not opt for a change in seat after allocation, while 3,621 opted for a better option. Around 1,400 students chose to opt for other programmes in the institute allotted, while over 2,200 opted for other programmes in other institutes. 

Source: TOI

Special Round: CSAB modifies rules

 In a move to fill up 5,550 vacant seats in NITs, IITs and other government-funded technical institutions (GFTIs), and to give a 'fair' chance to meritorious students, the Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) on Wednesday extended the deadline for an additional special round till August 17. 

While earlier only students not allotted a seat in the joint allocation process were allowed to register, the CSAB is now allowing all who have JEE (Main) ranks and are without seats to apply. Many parents and students alleged that allowing students who have already been given a chance is unfair to the others. 

The CSAB on August 7 announced the conduct of an additional special round to fill vacant seats in the central institutes, of the 23,919 seats. Of the 5,550 seats vacant, around 3,100 are in NITs alone; some are in sought-after institutes, such as in Surathkal, Warangal and Patna. While most seats are vacant in unpopular courses, many in popular ones, such as computer science and engineering, mechanical, electrical and civil are also empty, which is the bone of contention for many aspirants. The August 11 deadline for admissions through the additional round has been extended to August 17. 

NIT-Patna director and CSAB chairman Asok De said the board had received nearly 10,000 applications in the three-day window for the special round initially. "We have been getting requests from groups of students. Some claimed that they have missed out on a seat as they were unaware of business rules in the first-time joint process," he said. Since there are requests from students, De said the centre decided to open the additional round for all. "There is no harm if admissions are done on the basis of merit and all students get a chance," he added. 

But parents are up in arms against the board for allowing students who have got one chance to secure their seats. CSAB's Facebook page was flooded with students crying foul over the revised rules updated on Tuesday night. "They cannot change rules so many times. When in the beginning they said that students who have not locked their seats will not get another chance, what is the point in opening the admission process to all now?" asked a parent. Another said, "Students who may have willingly not taken the seat before will block the seat again for students who were genuinely not allotted one in the joint admission rounds. It is unfair and unethical." 

Source: TOI

CSAB: Making a mess of Admission Process

With the revised criterion now all students are eligible to participate in the special round and as per the schedule the academic calendar of all institutes will get a one month setback.
The two important worries I have are listed below:
1.Mental and Emotional: Due to various biases most of the students are almost not happy for not getting the desired bets branch and it takes a toll on  them and their parents. After joining they get normal within a week or two by settling in new college and hostel. For such students again they have to scratch their heads to again put up a list of choices and again the vicious cycle starts involving sleepless nights for them and parents.
If many seats still remain vacant then again we are going to have this one month extension???
Can CSAB officials are sure that no vacancies will be left?
Even if it is what impact it will have on other govt and private colleges who will see there students flown to some NIT/IIIT. What they will do?
The cascading effects are too much to be ignored.
2.Financial Loss: The revised information brochure says
In case Candidates are moving from one Institute to another Institute, CSAB is not responsible for Hostel fees or any other fees paid at the present Institute.

If you are not who will bear the responsibility? The student !!!

PANEL RECOMMENDS SINGLE ENGINEERING TEST

A government-appointed panel has recommended a single entrance test for admissions to all engineering institutes under AICTE and a common examination for all business schools. 

Significantly, it has suggested that seats which fall vacant after the completion of counselling sessions "shall not be treated as a management quota", but be used to accommodate students on the waiting list. 

The panel has recommended setting up of a National Testing Service for conduct of the exam and proposed that it be an independent body seeking the support of CBSE or outsourcing the work to other agencies.

At present over 11,000 institutes, both engineering and management, come under the purview of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). 

"There shall be a single National Testing Service which shall conduct a Joint Entrance Examination for engineering courses and a Common Admission Test for management courses, the results whereof shall be used by all institutions, whether run by universities, deemed universities, state government-run universities, private universities etc. 

"The seats which fall vacant after the completion of counselling sessions shall not be treated as a management quota, but shall be used to accommodate students on the waiting lists of these examinations," the report of the AICTE review committee said. 

The recommendations have been posted on the website mygov.in to seek the views of stakeholders.

"Today a student takes a plethora of entrance tests for entry to an institution under AICTE - and these are over and above the board exam. For example, JEE Main for engineering, CMAT for management, etc. Moreover, most states have some form of an entrance test. Besides, several deemed universities and private universities have their own tests and criteria for admission. 

"Therefore, it is proposed that a national testing agency be established under AICTE. It will endeavour to have a single national entrance test for all institutions under it," the report said. 

In its report, the committee has also suggested that AICTE should be transformed into an "apex constitutional authority" and emphasized on doing away with the affiliation system within a decade. 

"It should be converted into an apex constitutional authority to promote orderly, integrated and coordinated development of technical education ... technical education should be a fundamental right," the report said. 

The recommendations come two years after the HRD ministry then headed by Kapil Sibal had proposed to have a similar national testing agency to conduct various kinds of national level entrance examinations. A task force was also constituted to take the proposal forward, but little was heard about the it since then. 

Recognising the need for restructuring and strengthening the AICTE to address the challenges, the Human Resource Development Ministry had set up a review committee led by former education secretary MK Kaw in November 2014.

SOURCE: TOI

Instead of SPOT a Special Round announced for NIT/IIIT admissions

 In a relief to engineering aspirants, the central seat allocation board will conduct a special admission round to fill vacant seats in National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Information Technology and other government-funded technical institutes. 

The round will call for fresh registration from aspirants who have taken JEE-2015, but could not register earlier for a seat. Close to 3,000 seats are vacant across these national institutes and the special round will follow the same norms of reservation. "We will open registration and all students who were earlier not allotted a seat, can apply," said NIT-Patna director Asok De, also the chairman of the CSAB. 

CSAB-2015 uses the All India Rank drawn up on the basis of 60% marks of JEE Main and 40% of class 12 or equivalent marks after normalization. This year, there was a fundamental faux in admission to elite Indian engineering colleges which resulted in over 3,000 spots lying vacant at the end of the admission process. Without an exit clause, a bunch of students are stuck with seats they don't want to join, and another lot who want to sign up at these colleges but cannot do so. 

Moreover, IITs and NITs will refund the acceptance fee after deducting a small processing charge in case a student did not take admission. Aspirants had to pay a non-refundable seat acceptance fee of Rs 45,000 for the general category and Rs 20,000 for the SC/ST category. Now, refund will be granted to students if they have surrendered their seat before the commencement of the admission session. The HRD ministry has urged IITs and NITs to "return the fee after taking minimalistic processing fee". 

More than 4400 IIT NIT Students Dropped out in 3 years

A total of 2,060 students dropped out from the IITs alone with highest from IIT-Roorkee (575) followed by the IIT-Delhi (548), IIT-Kharagpur (535), IIT-Bombay (212) and IIT-Hyderabad (86), according to data tabled in the Lower House by the Human Resource Development (HRD) on Wednesday.

The NITs saw a total of 2,352 students dropping out since 2012. The NIT-Kurukshetra topped the list with 510 dropouts followed by Rourkela (412), Jaipur (395), Calicut (313) and Surathkhal (187).

“The reasons for dropout cases may be attributed to shifting to other institutions, personal reasons, medical reasons, getting jobs during PG courses, inability to cope with academic stress etc,” the HRD ministry told the Lok Sabha.

Giving an oral reply to a question, however, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said the Department of Higher Education had written to IIT-Roorkee, Kharagpur, Delhi and Bombay, asking them why such a large number of students were dropping out. “I am sure that the institutions will respond soon,” she added.

The issue came to light after the IIT-Roorkee recently expelled 73 students for their under-performance and later took them back to give another chance for improving their performance amid an uproar in the political circles as most of these students belonged to the reserved categories.

BJP Dausa MP Harish Chandra Meena had on Friday raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, demanding the Centre to intervene and ensure that the premier institutes take back these students and allow them to pursue their studies. He said “anti-reservation forces” were behind the expulsion. The minister defended the institutes’ decision, saying the court had upheld the IITs’ right to ensure academic performance. “IIT-Roorkee undertook an initiative to take these students back only if they fulfil those academic standards that they gave as an undertaking when they joined the system,” she said.

The data tabled by the ministry in the Lok Sabha indicates there has been no dropout case at IIT-Kanpur and Mandi in the last three years. While the IIT-Madras has seen only eight students dropping out in 2013-14, the institute did not record any such case in 2012-13 and 2014-15. The number of dropouts ranged between 1 and 23 at other IITs. AIADMK member M Thambidurai, while asking a supplementary question in the Lok Sabha, drew a comparison of figures and sought to know from the HRD minister why the students were moving out from “reputed institutes” like IIT Roorkee, Mumbai and Delhi in high numbers but not from similar institutions like IIT Madras.

Source: Deccan Herald

CLASS XII MARKS MAY SOON NOT COUNT FOR IN JEE

Students may not require their Class XII board marks for admissions to all central engineering institutes, other than IITs, from next year or by 2017, if a Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) recommendation is accepted by the ministry of human resource development. On the other hand, the competitive exam may be held a tad earlier next year, for authorities say that additional time is required for the admission process.

Following the 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, the CSAB will be strongly recommending admissions only on the basis of JEE (Main) scores. It means, the 40% weightage given to Class XII scores for admissions to NITs and other GFTIs (other than IITs) may be scrapped.