JEE, NEET admissions: 50% weightage for board exam scores under review

New Delhi: The Central Government is reviewing a major policy change that could allocate up to 50 percent weightage to Class 12 board exam results for professional college selections, including engineering and medical admissions through JEE and NEET.

According to official sources, this structural adjustment is intended to ease the overwhelming psychological stress associated with single-day, ultra-competitive entrance exams as well as secondary school terminal finals. This development surfaces at a time when repeated systemic discrepancies, such as evaluation mistakes and question paper leaks, have raised serious doubts over the transparency and reliability of national competitive testing frameworks.

Elaborating on the scope of the overhaul, an official source said, "The changes being contemplated are 50 per cent weightage for board marks in admission/ merit, closer alignment of entrance tests with school syllabi to reduce dependence on coaching centres, multiple attempts and a gradual shift towards adaptive on-demand computer-based tests."

Under the current framework, rank lists for medical and engineering seats are determined exclusively by entrance test rankings, while board exam scores only serve as a minimal qualifying threshold for eligibility.

These massive structural adjustments are being evaluated by a specialised nine-member panel constituted by the Ministry of Education. The working group was tasked with finding actionable solutions to curb the growth of parallel coaching systems, dismantle the culture of "dummy schools”, and restore public trust in the country's main admission filters. The expert panel is anticipated to deliver its conclusive recommendations to the government within a few weeks, and it has heavily emphasised syncing competitive question patterns with standard high school textbooks.

PTI