JEE-Main picks up; sees more than 82% candidates appearing on 3rd day
The Joint Entrance Examination – Main (JEE-Main) which was deferred twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic has begun on 1st September and has seen a pick up of more than 80 per cent of candidates appearing on the third day of the test which was held on Thursday. The exam, which was the first major exam to be conducted during the pandemic has been conducted whilst observing strict safety protocols.
According to reports, officials from the Ministry of Education said while Thursday’s attendance in the engineering entrance exam was 82.14 per cent, attendance was 81.08 per cent on Wednesday. On the first day, 54.67 per cent of candidates appeared for the Bachelors in Architecture and Planning exam.
According to the attendance statistics, 3.43 lakh candidates have appeared for the exam on the three days. It has been reported that more than 9 lakh candidates have registered for the exam for admission to Engineering courses in IITs, NITs and Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs).
Earlier, there were calls for postponing JEE-Mains and medical entrance exam NEET amid growing concerns over the rising number of COVID-19 cases. The Supreme Court, however, dismissed a plea seeking postponement of the two exams citing “precious year of students cannot be wasted and life has to go on”.
The National Testing Agency has reportedly taken several measures to safely conduct the exam while observing social distancing norms, including increasing the number of examination centres, alternate seating plans and fewer candidates per room, among others.
Based on the results of the JEE-Mains Paper 1 and Paper 2, the top 2.45 lakh candidates will be eligible to appear for the JEE-Advanced exam which is scheduled to take place on September 27), allowing them to gain admission into the 23 premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
