JEE Mains cut-offs in free fall

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 1

Questions are being raised on the standards of engineering education with the latest Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains results confirming a troubling trend — qualifying cut-offs in the test that determines entry of students to top central technical institutions continue to be in free fall.

JEE Mains results declared by the CBSE on Monday show that the cut-off for those declared qualified in the general category is 74 marks (out of 360 for which applicants were marked). The corresponding cut-off in the general category was 115 in 2014.

In 2018, reserved category cut-offs have also fallen sharply (see box). The situation is more worrisome in the Persons with Disability category where cut-offs this year are in the minus (-35). This means applicants in this category qualify even with minus scores as seats reserved are perhaps vacant.

Cut-offs for OBCs, SCs and STs in 2014 edition of JEE Mains were 74, 53 and 47, respectively. Through recent years, these qualifier cut-offs have declined consistently with experts worried about what they describe as “an indicative fall in the standards of engineering entrance tests”. All this comes at a time when cut-offs for general education, commerce and science streams are rising often touching 100 pc in reputed colleges.

One reason for declining cut offs could be increased number of seats in the central technical educational institutions. IITs alone have seen an increase of about a 1,000 seats over the last year. An equally important trend from JEE Mains results is the progressive increase in the number or students declared qualified for JEE Advanced which has to be taken to enter 23 IITs.

IITs have 11,509 seats to be filled by those who crack JEE Advanced. Top rankers of JEE Mains are eligible to sit for JEE Advanced. In 2015, the number of students who qualified for JEE Advanced was 1,50,000; this number rose to two lakh in 2016; 2.21 lakh in 2017 and 2.31 lakh in the 2018 edition of the exam.

An important aspect to IIT admissions this year is 14 per cent reservation in JEE Advanced merit list for girl students. Part of the enhanced IIT seats from the last year will go into providing for these reserved seats. This year, 11.43 lakh students had taken the JEE Mains exam of whom 2.31 have qualified for JEE Advanced.