Earlier, only students who scored a minimum 75 percent marks in Class 12 board exams or ranked in the top 20 percentile in their qualifying examinations were eligible.
The Union Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ announced on Twitter that the admission criteria for Indian Institutes of Technology, or IITs, have been relaxed and apart from qualifying the Joint Entrance Examination, or JEE Advanced, students will no longer need to score a minimum of 75 percent in their school board exams.
Earlier, only students who scored a minimum 75 percent marks in Class 12 board exams or ranked in the top 20 percentile in their qualifying examinations were eligible.
However, the cancellation of several board papers due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Joint Admission Board, or JAB, has relaxed this criterion of 75 percent marks.
HRD Minister Pokhriyal said students qualifying only the JEE Advanced, irrespective of the marks they have secured in Class 12 board exams, will be eligible for admission to IITs.
“For admissions to IITs, apart from qualifying the JEE (Advanced), the eligibility was to secure either a minimum score of 75% marks in class XII Board exams or rank among the top 20 percentile in their qualifying examinations. Due to the partial cancellation of class XII exams by several Boards, Joint Admission Board (JAB) has decided to relax the eligibility criterion for JEE (Advanced) 2020 qualified candidates this time,” the minister said.
He further added “Qualified candidates who have passed class XII examinations will now be eligible for admissions irrespective of marks obtained.”
Joint Entrance Examination, or JEE Advanced, is an entrance examination conducted for admission to various undergraduate Engineering, Science and Architecture courses in 23 IITs. Applicants have to qualify the JEE Main first.