The government today reached a compromise with the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in their disagreement over holding a common entrance examination from next year. Under the new formula,an advance test will be conducted,and IITs will admit students with the top 20 percentile from various boards. We have come out with a formula where screening criteria will be set wherein top 20 percentile students from every board will qualify to get entrance in IIT, Deepender Hooda,a member of the IIT Council,said after the meeting. This would be implemented from 2013,he said. The compromise was reached at a meeting of the IIT Council,the highest decision-making body comprising representatives from the government and directors of all 16 IITs. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal,who heads the Council,skipped the meeting,which was chaired by M N Sharma,chairman of the board of governors of IIT,Madras. According to the agreement,admission to IITs from 2013 would be based only on rank achieved in the advance test,subject to the condition that selected candidates are in the top 20 percentile of successful candidates of their boards. The government had earlier proposed a common entrance which was rejected by IIT,Delhi and IIT,Kanpur,with some others likely to follow suit. The compromise formula is in line with the decision of the IIT Joint Admission Board (JAB),comprising directors of IITs,which met here last Saturday. JAB has sought a suitable time gap between the main and advanced tests,so the results of mains are available before the advanced,and only the top 1,50,000 candidates in the mains appear in the advance test.
