New Delhi: The central government is weighing a major policy shift that could see Class 12 board examination marks accounting for 50 per cent of the total weightage in determining merit lists for highly competitive professional entrance exams like NEET and JEE. According to institutional sources, the Ministry of Education is actively reviewing this proposal as part of a sweeping strategy to alleviate student stress, curb the nationwide growth of commercial coaching hubs, and dismantle the widespread culture of non-attending dummy schools across the country.
The proposed structural changes seek to fundamentally change the current admissions framework, where undergraduate medical and engineering seats are allocated entirely on the basis of single-day entrance test scores, with board marks serving merely as a basic eligibility threshold. If implemented, the new model will utilize normalized board exam performances alongside normalized entrance test scores to construct final admission merit lists. Beyond allocating substantial weightage to regular school learning, the draft proposals include a closer alignment of entrance test syllabi with the standard school curriculum, introducing a multi-attempt exam framework to replace high-pressure, one-shot tests, and managing a gradual transition toward adaptive, on-demand computer-based testing models.
These extensive structural recommendations are currently being evaluated by a high-level nine-member committee appointed by the Ministry of Education. The specialized panel, chaired by Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi and featuring senior representation from the Central Board of Secondary Education, NCERT, IIT Madras, and IIT Kanpur, is scheduled to submit its comprehensive final report to the government in the coming weeks. The committee’s ongoing deliberations have been heavily influenced by a series of recent national evaluation discrepancies and examination vulnerabilities, which have placed the transparency and reliability of the current centralized testing infrastructure under intense public and judicial scrutiny.
Recognizing the ripple effects of these potential changes, the expert panel has specifically linked the introduction of board marks weightage with a mandatory requirement to improve the academic evaluation standards and structural integrity of provincial board exams. This measure is intended to eliminate inflated internal marks, tackle excessive grade moderation, and ensure that practical marks are transparently recorded as distinct qualitative grades. Additionally, the committee has suggested that NCERT act as the premier nodal agency to harmonize Class 11 and 12 pedagogical standards with national competitive expectations, while simultaneously urging the central government to formulate a comprehensive regulatory and legislative framework to govern the operations of private coaching institutes nationwide.
