IIT-JEE pattern proposed to be changed

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THE PATTERN OF EXAMINATION for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT’s) is proposed to be changed from 2013. The final decision in this regard would be made at a meeting of the IIT Council scheduled to be held in January 2012. According to IIT Kanpur Director S. G. Dhande, the IIT Council had accepted the recommendations of the Dr. T. Ramasami Committee. However, the council would hold detailed deliberations at its meeting in January about the ways and means to implement these recommendations, Mr. Dhande said in Kanpur. The Ramaswamy Committee has recommended that an aptitude test be conducted as part of the JEE for candidates seeking admission to the IIT’s. The aptitude test should consist of questions on reasoning, and on the subjects that the candidates have studied in school. Similarly, to bring about uniformity in comparing the performance of candidates, their scores at the Class XII would also be taken into consideration while deciding the relative merit. A candidate’s score at the Class XII examination will be converted into percentile. This percentile will be given 50 per cent weightage and the candidate’s performance at the JEE 50 per cent weightage to decide his rank in the merit list, Mr. Dhande said. This was being done as it is a difficult task to ensure uniformity in the scores of candidates from various boards, since the country has several state boards and only two central boards, he also said. The scores of candidates at the Class XII examination would be brought on a uniform scale through virtual mapping by the Kolkata-based Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), he added. The Ramasami Committee was headed by Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The IIT Council consists of the minister in charge of technical education in the Union Government, who is also the Chairman, three Members of Parliament, the chairmen and directors of all the IIT’s, the Chairman of the University Grants Commission, the Director General of the Council for Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Chairman and Director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and three nominees each of the Union Government and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).