Over 82% Candidates Appear in JEE-Main on Third Day

More than 82 per cent candidates appeared in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Main on the third day of the test on Thursday, amid stringent precautions in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said. The Ministry of Education officials said while the Thursday's attendance in the engineering entrance exam was 82.14 per cent, it was 81.08 per cent on Wednesday.

On day one i.e. on Tuesday, 54.67 per cent candidates had appeared in the exam for Bachelor in Architecture and Planning. As per attendance statistics, 3.43 lakh candidates have appeared for the exam on the three days. The exam, which was earlier deferred twice in view of COVID-19 pandemic, is now underway — from September 1 to 6.

The JEE-Main is the first large-scale exam to be conducted in the country amid the pandemic. Over 9 lakh candidates have registered for the exam for admission to engineering courses in IITs, NITs and Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs). While the governments of Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have assured students that they will provide transportation to candidates, a group of IIT alumni and students have also launched a portal to provide transport facilities to exam centres for the candidates in need.

The National Testing Agency has taken several steps to conduct the crucial exam safely: increasing the number of examination centres, alternate seating plans, fewer candidates per room and staggered entry and exit, among others. There was a growing chorus for postponing JEE-Mains and medical entrance exam NEET amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases.

The Supreme Court had earlier dismissed a plea seeking postponement of the two exams amid a spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases, saying a "precious year" of students cannot be wasted and life has to go on. 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 a one-stop exam to get admission into the 23 premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). JEE-Advanced is scheduled to take place on September 27.