New Delhi, January 19: In a major relief to students, the Ministry of Education on Tuesday decided to waive off 75 percent marks eligibility criteria under Joint Entrance Exam-Mains (JEE-Mains) for the academic year 2021-2022. The relaxation in admission criteria includes the NITs and centrally funded technical institutions. The announcement was made by Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Twitter. The decision to scrap the 75 percent criterion was largely welcomed by students. Earlier, along with performance in JEE-Mains, NITs used to demand either 75 per cent mark in the board examinations or a place in the top 20 percentile of their respective boards.

While declaring the date of JEE (Advanced) exam, the Education Minister announced to waive off the 75% marks (in class 12th exam) eligibility criteria for admissions to the academic year 2021-2022 for the ease of students. "Considering the decision taken for IIT JEE (Advanced) and in line with the decision taken for the last academic year, it has been decided to waive off the 75% marks (in class 12 exam) eligibility criteria under Joint Entrance Examination (Main) for the next academic year 2021-2022 in respect of NITs, IIITs, SPAs and other CFTIs, whose admissions are based on JEE (Main)", the tweet read. JEE Advanced 2021 Exam Date Update: Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' Announces Examination To Be Conducted on July 3.

Here's the tweet by the Education Minister:

An official release said that the admissions to various Under Graduate (UG) programmes of the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur (West Bengal) and other Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs - excluding IITs) are made on the basis of ranks / merit secured by the candidates in Joint Entrance Examination (Main) conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

Moreover, the candidates to qualify for admission in the IITs / NITs / IIITs and such other CFTis whose admissions are based on the JEE Ranks, they should have secured at least 75% marks in the 12th Class exam, or be in the top 20 percentile in the Class 12 exam conducted by the respective Boards. For SC/ST students, the qualifying mark in Class 12 exam is 65%.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 19, 2021 04:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).