'Sibal's new IIT criterion is discriminatory'

Patna, Oct 20: Asserting that the education system should be inclusive, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar urged the HRD minister, Kapil Sibal to rethink the new existing eligibility criteria in the IIT joint entrance test wherein a candidate must have a minimum of 80 pc in Class 12 in order to be eligible to take the IIT-JEE.

The Chief Minister, who contended that Sibal's propsal to change the criteria is elitist and discrimantory against the students with poor socio-economic status, said, "Any examination system should be inclusive. Any change in the existing examination system will have far reaching consequences, which is unwarranted."

"In the existing system, larger pool of students with different socio-economic background are able to appear in the entrance examination. This explains better performance of students from backward regions in the IIT examination," he added.

Kapil Sibal on Monday, Oct 19 considered a change in the existing eligibility criteria in the IIT-JEE test. He mulled over increasing the cut off percentage from 60 per cent to 80 per cent in Class 12 marks.

OneIndia News