Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank' on March 15 informed the Parliament that the government has taken steps to provide coaching facilities to poor and underprivileged students, including those who want to prepare for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced. JEE Advanced is conducted for admission to undergraduate engineering programmes at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The initiatives taken by the government include SWAYAM courses and video lectures prepared by IIT professors, Mr Pokhriyal said.
In the interest of students including the most disadvantaged, the Centre has launched Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), which offers interactive course content such as video lectures, reading materials, tests and exams, which can be accessed for free, the Minister said.
Mr Pokhriyal also informed about the Indian Institute of Technology - Professor Assisted Learning (IIT-PAL) initiative, which provides video content of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics subjects prepared by IIT Professors and Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) teachers for Class 11 and Class 12.
Students aspiring to join IITs and other institutions can prepare with these lectures, available on SWAYAM PRABHA channels, YouTube and nta.ac.in.
28.64% Students Cleared JEE Advanced 2020
Only 28.64 per cent of the total 1,50,838 students who appeared for JEE Advanced 2020 managed to clear it, Mr Pokhriyal informed the Parliament today.
In response to a question raised in Parliament, the minister said that 45.51 per cent of general category candidates managed to pass the entrance exam, and the percentage of qualifying students is lowest among OBC-NCL (non creamy layer) students.
Category-wise list of students qualified in JEE Advanced 2020
Category | Appeared | Qualified | Percentage |
General | 39,605 | 18,028 | 45.51 |
SC | 23,775 | 7,869 | 33.09 |
ST | 10,924 | 2,818 | 25.79 |
OBC-NCL | 52,785 | 9,349 | 17.71 |
GEN-EWS | 23,749 | 5,140 | 21.64 |
Out of the 43,204 students who qualified in the exam, only 16,061 took admission.
1,608 out of 2,818 ST students who cleared the exam were not allotted seats at IITs. The number of SC students who could not take admission to IITs is 5,460.
When asked why these students were not allotted seats, the Education Minister informed that this could be because they did not participate in the counselling process or withdrew from the process during counselling, or they were allotted a seat in the NIT+ system.
This could also be because seats were filled by candidates who secured higher ranks, the minister said.
