Parents of students who aspire to get into NITs and IITs feel the eight facilitation centres announced by CBSE for the State to help aspirants with the admission process are not adequate.
Starting this year, the admission process of JEE (mains) – the entrance exam for IITs and NITs and other reputed engineering colleges – goes completely online. Parents feel Tamil Nadu, with a high number of applicants could do with more assistance.
Nearly 40,000 students from Tamil Nadu wrote the exam last year. The application process began on November 15 and will go on till December 26.
Facilitation centres, said CBSE officials, will guide aspirants through the admission process – online submission of forms, documents, signatures, photographs, preferences and fees – free of cost.
In Tamil Nadu, only three schools in Chennai and one each in Madurai, Tiruchi, Vellore, Tirunelveli and Coimbatore have been designated as facilitation centres.
Other States like Maharashtra and Gujarat have been given 38 and 30 facilitation centres respectively.
Experts feel States that have adopted JEE (Mains) as the entrance test for their engineering colleges have been given more facilitation centres comparatively. “This is not fair as JEE (Mains) is a national test and students in all States should be encouraged to take it, irrespective of the State policy,” S. Vaidyasubramanian, dean (planning and development), SASTRA University said.
“Karnataka and Tamil Nadu especially have a huge applicant base.”
There are no facilitation centres in Salem, Karur, Erode, Villupuram and Namakkal.
Sources say many States, including Delhi, Bihar and U.P., had requested the CBSE for more assistance centres, anticipating a rise in the number of IIT aspirants. There was, however, no request from the Tamil Nadu State government.
