Hit by percentile norm, AP students demand review of entrance reforms

Parents wondered how students, ranked after three levels of examination, can be denied admission only because they don’t figure in the top 20 percentile in their intermediate

More than 100 students from the State have lost an opportunity to study in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) while another 1,500 missed the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) due to the ‘faulty’ percentile system adopted by the authorities, claimed parents and aspirants at a round table conference organised by the Government Junior Lecturers Association (GJLA) here on Wednesday.

The conference also resolved that the State Government take up the issue with the Centre and review all the reforms in IIT and NIT admissions.

Parents wondered how students who have been ranked after three levels of examination can be denied admission just because they don’t figure in the top 20 percentile of the respective intermediate boards. The percentile system was robbing ‘good’ students of their chances while turning out to be advantageous for students in other States who did not work hard, they alleged.

“Is it a crime to study hard?” they questioned, arguing that the percentile system was introduced to “obstruct” the entry of Telugu students into national institutes.

GJLA president P. Madhusudhan Reddy said students had to cross three hurdles – clearing JEE Main first, appearing in the top 1.5 lakh candidates of JEE Main and later the JEE (Advanced). Where is the need for another hurdle, which is not even for all candidates, he asked.

Even if authorities want to ensure students take their classroom studies seriously, a minimum percentage could be prescribed for students across the country rather than identifying them through the percentile system, a parent argued.

“In the percentile system, students from other States who score much lesser than our State students tend to gain as there is not much competition there. States where there is lot of competition for marks tend to lose despite their students scoring much higher marks,” he said.

Percentile system

Unlike the percentage system where everyone knows what they secured based on their performance, the percentile system reveals the status of students comparing them with the performance of fellow students. For example, if student X is ranked 25 among 150 students, then 125 students are below him/her and his/her percentile would be calculated by dividing 125 by 150 and multiplying it by 100.

Similarly, consider that student Y scores 550 marks competing among a total of 5,000 students. Then Y’s percentile would be calculated taking the number of candidates who scored below 550 marks, dividing that by 5,000 and multiplying the resultant by 100.