In a significant development, the HRD Ministry on Thursday announced a relaxation in the admission criteria for NITs and Centrally-funded technical institutions (CFTI) in view of the Covid-19 pandemic by doing away with the requirement of minimum 75 per cent marks in Class 12 board exams.
“Due to prevailing circumstances, Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) has decided to relax the eligibility criterion for admissions to NITs and other centrally funded technical institutions,” Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ tweeted.
“JEE Main 2020 qualified candidates will now only need to obtain a passing certificate in class XII examination irrespective of the marks obtained,” he further said.
For admissions in NITs and other CFTIs, apart from qualifying the JEE-Main, the eligibility was to secure a minimum of 75 per cent marks in Class 12 board exams or rank among the top 20 percentile in their qualifying examinations.
The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Mains, which has been postponed twice, will now be held from September 1-6.
Nishank had earlier announced that the eligibility criterion for JEE (Advanced) 2020 qualified candidates are being relaxed and a decision has been taken in this regard by the Joint Admission Board (JAB). Several State Boards have had to partially cancel class 12 exams.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exams could not be held as per the schedule and the boards had to release the result on the basis of a new assessment scheme wherein the average marks secured by the students in the papers for which the exam was held were taken into consideration. Students who wish to improve their scores will be given a chance later.