NEW DELHI: The new format of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) to the Indian Institutes of Technology has borne fruit, according to the Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry as the number of candidates who cleared this entrance test in the first attempt has gone up from 28.49 per cent in 2005 to 43.50 per cent.

Basing its claim on an analysis done by IIT Kharagpur — which conducted the JEE this year — the Ministry in a statement said this was the result of making a first division or equivalent at the Class XII level mandatory for appearing in the JEE from this year onwards.

Candidates from villages

Another factor that the Ministry is rejoicing over is the increase in the proportion of successful candidates hailing from towns and villages. It went up to 30.67 per cent this year from 28.02 per cent last year. Consequently, the proportion of successful candidates from cities went down from 71.98 per cent in 2005 to 69.37 per cent. This, in the opinion of the Ministry, is indicative of a reduction in the dependence on coaching centres, as students from towns and villages do not have the kind of access to such specialised training that their counterparts in cities have.

As a result of the reduction in the application fee for female candidates, there was a greater participation of girls in the JEE. However, their success rate showed only a marginal improvement. Last year, the Ministry had announced a slew of changes in the JEE format to ease stress and break the stranglehold of coaching centres on this entrance examination.

Besides mandatory 60 per cent at the Class XII stage, the other changes include abolition of the screening test, five per cent relaxation in marks for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and reduction in the number of attempts of the JEE. Also, students who take admission in one IIT are no longer allowed to appear for the JEE again to join an institute of his/her preference.

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