Only top 20% Class XII board students can take IIT exam

In a compromise formula to end the stalemate over admissions to the Indian Institutes of Technology, directors of the IITs have accepted a proposal to allow only the top 20 per cent students in the Class XII board examinations to appear in the entrance examination.

Officials said Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal had asked IIT-Delhi Director R K Shevgaonkar to present the proposal before the other IIT directors at a meeting on Saturday and seek their opinion. The new proposal means only the top 20 per cent students from each board would be considered for the test. The other 80 per cent would not be eligible. The IIT directors who attended the meeting could not be reached despite several attempts.

Experts, however, said the new proposal was not free of fault. “The new proposal is as complex logistically as the old one. Further, it is anti-poor, as to get into the top 20 per cent, students would need to have a good support system. Further, under no circumstances would this be allowed to be executed before 2014,” said Somnath Bharti, president, IIT Delhi Alumni Association.