Ministry of Education took to Twitter on March 19, 2021, to announce the relaxation in the eligibility criteria for the Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) course. This relaxation shall be put into effect from the upcoming academic 2021-22. According to the tweet, the minimum requirement of 50% marks in PCM combination along with an aggregate of 10+2 has been relaxed to only pass in the Class 12 board examination. Moreover, the combination of subjects must be Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. These changes in the eligibility criteria have been introduced in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has gravely affected the academics of students and created many hurdles in their education. Acknowledging this, the ministry of education tweeted on March 19, 2021 about the relaxation in the eligibility criteria. This criteria are pertaining to students who wish to pursue Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) degree.
According to the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, students no longer have to score 50% marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics along with an aggregate of 10+2. Instead, they just have to pass the Class 12 board examination with PCM combination. In case of Diploma students, the criteria remain the same of only passing 10+3 Diploma course with mathematics as one of the subjects.
The mentioned relaxation of eligibility criteria shall come into force from the upcoming academic year 2021-22. According to the education ministry, this reform is being introduced in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. With India preparing itself for the second wave of coronavirus, the education ministry decided to aid students in their academics.
The National Testing Agency on March 18, 2021, declared the results for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2021 February session. These results were for Papers 2 A (B.Arch) and 2 B (B.Planning). The same were conducted on February 23, 2021. A total of 59,962 registered for the B.Arch paper across 329 cities within and outside India.
NTA also declared the category-wise, gender-wise and state-wise toppers in both papers through the official press notice issued on March 18, 2021 on the official website jeemain.nta.nic.in. This year, for the first time, JEE Main 2021 was conducted in 13 languages including English and Hindi.
The next session of JEE Main 2021 for B.Planning and B.Arch shall be conducted in the month of May, 2021. After conducting the February and May, 2021 sessions of B.Arch, final ranks of candidates shall be released on the official website. These ranks shall be determined based on the best of two NTA scores of all candidates who appeared in both sessions. NTA has also given candidates the choice to appear in one of two exams. The exact date for declaration of JEE Main 2021 ranks is yet to be announced by the authorities.