From the next year, class XII board exam marks may carry less weightage than the currently prescribed 40 per cent for the National Institutes of Technology (NIT).  The Central government has taken a decision to roll back its earlier decision of assigning 40 per cent weightage to class XII board examination marks and 60 per cent weightage to the candidate’s JEE (Main) performance for admissions in NIT. The HRD Minister Smriti Irani, who is also the chairman of NIT Council, has decided that from 2017, NITs  will not calculate ranks based on Board performance. They will follow the IIT rule of granting admission to candidates, who apart from qualifying JEE (Advanced)  are either in the top 20 percentile of his or her school Board or has scored at least 75 per cent. The earlier decision of giving weightage to Board performance was taken by the then UPA government under the former HRD Minister Kapil Sibal. He argued that with such decision, students will focus more on school education than only on coaching classes. But last three years report suggests that the number of tuition goers has increased to four per cent.  That is why a decision has been taken to revert to the old structure.

The Logical Indian hopes this decision brings relief to the students who suddenly get burdened after class 10th. Preparing both for competitive exams and board exams with same dedication is almost impossible for most of the students.