Explain erroneous system, Centre tells IITs

• Pallam Raju meets IIT-D chief, more meetings to follow
• Percentile calculation shall be of all students: Minister
• IIT directors to deliberate the issue, panel may be set up

The agony and huge public outcry over the pattern adopted by IITs for admissions this year has at last hit the designers of the 'erroneous system' in Delhi when the Union Minister for Human Resources Development MM Pallam Raju met the Director of IIT Delhi, R K Shevegaonkar on Wednesday and raised the issue of discrepancy. The meeting lasted for over an hour and centered on the new pattern and the complaints of aspirants. According to a report, about 80 IIT aspirants failed to get admission to the prestigious institutes in the just concluded admission process due to the differing calculations between the state boards and the IITs in arriving at the top 20 percentile of successful candidates. But the number was said to be even more as from Andhra Pradesh alone, more than 100 students reportedly failed to get the admission. Talking to reporters later, the Minister said some states which included Andhra Pradesh could have made calculations inconsistent with the one adopted by the IITs. According to him, "the top 20 percentile was calculated by these state boards based on the number of students who appeared in the class XII board examinations, while it should have been the total number of students who passed the exam." Raju, however, did not elaborate when asked for the reason for the differing calculations. When asked if the affected students would get reprieve, he said, "We will see, will look into how many have got affected and on what basis. "I'm waiting for more clarifications on the matter and intends to hold a couple of more meetings on the admission process which would also include the system of normalization of marks" he added. Asked if his ministry was considering to revert to the old system of admission, Raju remarked that "the present system was adopted as per the wisdom of the IIT council and it's for them to see what is fair and what is not." Raju's meeting with the IIT Delhi director came in wake of complaints from students and parents about confusions in the admission to the IITs under the new format of entrance test for which weightage is given to performance in board exams along with the entrance test. Students in Andhra Pradesh have been the worst hit, where the cut-off marks for top 20 percentile of successful candidates in the general category declared by board was 487. This sharply contrasts with states like Tripura where the cut-off declared by the board was 268 out of 500. In a letter to Pallam Raju on Tuesday, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Kirankumar Reddy questioned the fairness of the new pattern and demanded that entrance exam alone shall be the criterion to admissions to IITs and not the percentile. Some students approached the courts to seek justice. Top sources said directors of 16 IITs would deliberate the issue in the next couple of days and come out with a view. A panel of experts is likely to be formed to look into the issue, sources said.