With large number of Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) coming up, the HRD Ministry is working on to decrease the “difficulty” level of Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE-Advanced) so that a maximum number of candidates are allowed entry and seats do not remain vacant. The IIT Council will discuss it threadbare in its next meeting. The move comes as about 1,000 seats could not be filled this year which led the IITs’ Joint Admission Board (JAB) to reduce the cut-offs.

HRD Ministry sources said the Ministry is of the opinion that JEE Advanced is getting ‘tougher’ and thus for the next academic sessions the issue is likely to be taken in the next IIT Council meet. The JEE-Advanced 2018 results declared last week saw a sharp decline in the number of qualifying students with 18,138 candidates declared eligible for admission to 11,279 IIT seats.

This is not the first time questions have been raised about the nature of the JEE and the need for reform. Kapil Sibal-led HRD Ministry, which introduced the two-tier IIT entrance, had to struggle every academic session during his tenure. The NDA regime too had planned for the change in JEE and going back to its old format which had only one entrance across the country for all the IITs.

“Keeping in view the not so encouraging results this year, the Ministry has asked the IIT Council to examine the modalities and the test design of JEE-Advanced exam. The Ministry has been informed that this year the entrance test was far beyond the capability of students. It has to be addressed at earliest,” said a senior HRD Ministry official. The IIT Council is chaired by the HRD Minister.

Sources said IITs had assessed that at least 1,000 seats could go vacant due to a trip in merit list. The IIT JAB had met on June 12 to take stock but was reluctant to bring down the cut-off preferring to defer any decision, pending a detailed data analysis.

However, the HRD Ministry directed the JAB that it should ensure that all the reservation category seats in all disciplines are filled and no vacant seat is left after counselling for admission in IITs. Following the HRD Ministry directive, a second JAB meeting was convened which decided to bring down the cut-off by 10 per cent, which would add 13,000 candidates to the merit list.