CBSE students to bear brunt of new IIT rules

The new eligibility criterion for the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is likely to hit CBSE students the hardest, judging by an analysis of those admitted this year to IIT-Kanpur. Bhavya Dore reports.

The new eligibility criterion for the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is likely to hit CBSE students the hardest, judging by an analysis of those admitted this year to IIT-Kanpur.

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From next year, regardless of their scores on the IIT joint entrance exam, candidates will have to be within the top 20 percentile of their Class 12 boards in order to be admitted to an IIT.

Of the batch of 398 general category students admitted to IIT-K this year, 14 would not have been eligible if this rule had been applicable.

Of those 14 students, 12 are from schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Students in more competitive boards such as the CBSE face a disadvantage because it is tougher to be in the top 20 percentile here. Data from the Coun-cil of Boards of School Education, for instance, showed that the 20 percentile cut-off would have been 77.8% for CBSE candidates and 58% for West Bengal state board students this year.