12th marks will not lose weightage in JEE, HRD Ministry

New Delhi: A committee comprising of IIT Roorkee Director Ashok Misra submitted a report to the HRD ministry advocating notable changes in JEE exam structure and suggesting a single entrance for admission to technical institutes.

Recently, the council also advised for setting up of a National Testing Service by early 2016 to conduct an Aptitude Test on the lines of SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test).

"The aptitude test may be offered two or more times in a year and would be online. The testing shall gauge the scientific thinking and cannot be gamed through coaching institutes. Based on this performance, about 4 lakh candidates shall be shortlisted for taking the JEE "the panel suggested.

"The JEE itself will be on the lines of the current JEE (Advanced)," it added.

But the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry headed by Smriti Irani, has refused to accept the recommendation of the committee for scraping the system of giving weightage to Class XII board examination scores in JEE-Main examination from 2016.

The 2016 JEE Main examination will be conducted in the same format as it has been conducted so far, the ministry declared.

"The government has decided to place the recommendations of the report in the public domain for widespread consultation with the stakeholders. Since this process would take some time, it was decided that the JEE 2016 shall be conducted in the same manner in 2015," it said.

Besides, a total of 2 lakh candidates will be able to take JEE-Advance in 2016 as the ministry decided to enhance the number of candidates to be selected for the test, conducted for admission to the IITs and ISM.

Till this year, the joint admission board of the IITs selected a total of 1.5 lakh students from the all-India merit list of JEE–Main for taking JEE-Advance.

(With inputs from various sources)

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