Zero in exam can still get you an engineering seat

They may have handed over blank papers but they have still qualified for admission into professional engineering courses in Andhra Pradesh. Unbelievable but true, as per officials.

Twenty-two of 78 students who scored zero in the entrance exam this year will get admission in engineering courses as they belong to Scheduled Caste(SC) or Scheduled Tribe(ST) communities.

According to officials in the education department, despite scoring zero in EAMCET (Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test), these students have qualified as they got the minimum 40 % marks in the qualifying XII exam.

While 9 students will get admission into engineering institutes, 13 can pursue other courses except MBBS. Even this was possible till 2008 when the Medical Council of India (MCI) tightened the eligibility norms.

The Dalit/tribal students who have qualified despite scoring zero in the medical stream in EAMCET can get admissions into agriculture, veterinary and horticulture degree programmes.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Hyderabad, conducts EAMCET every year for admission into professional courses both in government and private institutes in the state. The results of EAMCET 2012 were announced last week.

Of 90,917 students who gave EAMCET in the medicine stream, 83,686 qualified.

For the general category students, the competition will be tough with only 4,950 seats available in 37 medical colleges and 1,870 seats in 21 dental colleges.

Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of engineering colleges (671) in India.

Of 283,477 students who gave engineering entrance, 223,886 have qualified. This number has come down to about 200,000 as many students failed in the XII exam.

This means over 100,000 engineering seats would still remain vacant in the academic year 2012-13. The state has 321,000 engineering seats.

Academicians say the number of vacant seats in engineering institutes would be even higher as the top rankers will opt for the Indian Institute of Technology.

Till 2010, passing XII exam was sufficient to get entry into engineering institute even if the students score zero in EAMCET.

Last year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) prescribed a cut off percentage of 50 in 12 Class for general category and 40 % for the reserved quota students.

The total marks in EAMCET are 160, and for the general category, the qualifying marks are 25 % of the total.

Governor ESL Narasimhan, who is the chancellor of all universities in the state, is sad over the state of affairs.

Addressing JNTU Hyderabad convocation in May, he disapproved of the trend of giving admissions to students who don't score a single mark in EAMCET.

"There should be some minimum qualifying marks. What do you expect of such students, who score zero, to do in classrooms? Do you want to develop an inferiority complex among such students?"

Governor ESL Narasimhan, Governor, Andhra Pradesh

Previous year, 26 out of 73 students who got zero marks in EAMCET were declared qualified. Of them, 17 got admissions into engineering and nine in agriculture/veterinary institutes.