Confusion prevailed in the state academic circles on Tuesday over reports claiming that the cut-off marks needed for an IIT berth was set to increase to 80 per cent.

Even as the Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal backtracked by evening saying the IITs, and not the ministry, would take a final call on the matter, voices of dissent have started to rise.

“To avoid criticism, the ministry may ask the IITs to take the proposal forward. I think the IITs would say they want the cut-off marks to increase so that students who have done well in board exams join their institutes. This would be the ministry’s way of doing what it intends to do,” said a senior official of the state Joint Entrance Examination Board.

State Higher Education Minister Sudarshan Roychowdhury said the proposal would make matters difficult for students from rural areas.

“The cut-off marks for appearing in an entrance examination cannot be 80 per cent. If we see the kind of students making it to the better universities in the state — JU and BESU — they are the ones with 80 per cent and above marks.

He said that with the ministry promoting the grading system of evaluation, it would be difficult to compare the 85 per cent marks scored in one board with say 79 per cent marks from another board.

Onkar Sadhan Adhikari, president of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education, said the ministry’s proposal, aimed at checking the mushrooming of the JEE coaching business, may not be productive.

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