Edu-leaders

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex body for technical education in India, recently announced that the eligibility criteria for admission to first year engineering courses has been lowered to 45 per cent in Class XII physics, chemistry and maths (PCM) group (40 per cent for reserved category).

Therefore, students with marks between 135 to 149 out of 300 in PCM can apply to the course. Earlier, the bar was 150 out of 300.

The decision of the AICTE is yet to reach the state directorate of technical education (DTE) formally. The new schedule for the process of admission will also be declared after this.

However, the delay in the decision of the AICTE has also deferred the admission process for engineering courses in Maharashtra. Also, the DTE could not announce the provisional merit lists for the five autonomous and the other non-autonomous engineering colleges on Monday due to this.

The DTE has announced more than 1.14 lakh seats in the 309 engineering institutions in the state. This number is expected to rise with the AICTE’s decision to have new institutions, courses and the revision in student intake this year.

Besides this, the AICTE has also lowered the benchmark for admission to polytechnics from 50 per cent to 35 per cent in Class X exams from any board.