Andhra Pradesh students who usually dominate the IIT-JEE results every year will be at a “disadvantage” over students from other states if the statistics released by the Council of Boards of School Education (CoBSE) are any indication: They have been set the toughest ‘barrier’ for the forthcoming IIT entrance test.
If the proposed IIT-JEE test based on the “top 20 percentile data” comes into force from 2013, AP students will have to secure 87.20 per cent in the Intermediate (10+2) exams, the highest in the country, to become eligible. The next highest state will be Tamil Nadu, whose students will have to get 78.17 per cent. CBSE students across the country, including AP, will need to get 77.80 per cent marks.
The CoBSE, which is the association of various Boards at 10+2 level across the country, has arrived at these cut-off figures based on the top 20 percentile marks secured by students in various 10+2 Board exams this year. Till now, a minimum of 60 per cent in 10+2 was enough to appear for the IIT-JEE. However, with the proposal to allow only students who figure in the top 20 percentile list from each Board to take the test, the cut-off marks for AP students will increase to 87.20 per cent. Other states that come close are Tamil Nadu (78.17), CBSE (77.80), Kerala (76.5), Punjab (70.8), Karnataka (67.5), Jammu and Kashmir (67), Uttar Pradesh (65), Manipur (64.6), Madhya Pradesh (64) and Rajasthan (63.8). At the lower end of the scale, Meghalaya will have to score 49.40 per cent, the lowest in the country. The wide variation in marks is because of different evaluation methods adopted by various Boards.
“The new system is totally irrational. While the Centre talks of reducing the stress for students, it works exactly the opposite way. Students from urban areas and those in corporate colleges will have an edge as they score over 90 per cent marks. Students from rural and weaker sections will not be in a position even to appear for the new test. AP should lodge a protest against the new test with the Centre in the larger interest of our students,” said Madhusudhan Reddy, general secretary of AP Government Junior Lecturers’ Association, which has been agitating against the new test.