HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju has convened an emergency meeting to put an end to the raging controversy over the IIT percentile normalisation process.
Top officials from the Ministry and Council of IITs are expected to look into the shortcomings. Raju will also review the system of admission to IITs, for which weightage is given to board exams along with the new format of entrance test introduced by his predecessor, Kapil Sibal.
“We will hold a review meeting on Wednesday to figure out shortcomings — if any — and streamline the process,” Raju told reporters on his return from a 10-day Australia and New Zealand trip. The Minister said he had received several mails from concerned students and parents during his trip, which have been forwarded to HRD officials.
CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi, who was accompanying the Minister, was sent back to monitor admissions to IIT and other Centrally-funded technical institutes (CFTIs). IIT-Delhi director RK Shevgaonkar is also likely to attend Wednesday’s meeting.
According to information so far, about 80 students have failed to make it to IITs despite securing good ranks, due to a ‘controversial’ percentile system introduced by Sibal.
The percentile system, which is one of the crucial conditions for selecting students to the IITs, is likely to hog the limelight at the meeting, amid sundry reports of discrepancies in calculations of various boards.Admissions to the IITs for this academic session have, however, come to an end, as IITs claim to have exhausted all seats in the general category.
Admission to 16 IITs, under the new format, is based on performance in JEE (Advanced). Students who have done well should also be among the top 20 percent of successful candidates in class XII examination conducted by various school boards.
The Ministry is deeply concerned about the issue as most hard hit are candidates from Andhra Pradesh, which has the highest percentile limit. The matter has also reached the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court and Andhra Pradesh High Court through separate PIls.