Sibal moots higher cutoffs for IIT entrance

Opening a new front, Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal favoured more weightage be given to Class 12 Board exam for the Indian Institute of Technology entrance and felt that the required minimum of 60 per cent marks could be raised but left it to a committee to take a decision.

Sibal's suggestion came in an attempt to ensure that students taking entrance tests to the premier institutes gave equal importance to the secondary school exam and to check the growth of IIT coaching centres. A committee of IIT directors has been appointed to work out a revised system for IIT entrance from 2011, he said.

Sibal told reporters the move is aimed at ensuring that students take their class XII seriously and checking the growth of coaching centres,

which are thriving on imparting coaching to students for the IIT entrance. Asked whether the higher minimum should be raised to 80 to 85 per cent, Sibal said it all depended upon the IIT system to take a decision. "The present criteria is that students need to secure 60 per cent at class XII for appearing in IIT-JEE. This is not acceptable. The minimum marks required for IIT-JEE could be raised, " Sibal said after a meeting of the IIT council, the apex decision making body for the elite institutes.

"The coaching centres are giving training for the IIT entrance. As a result, the students are not studying seriously for class XII exam and giving more attention to entrance. We want to get rid of the coaching centres by giving more weightage to the board exam," Sibal said.