New Delhi: At least 114,563 students dropped out of the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE Mains) in the first three days, highlighting that students fear Covid-19 and the demand for a change in entrance dates was real than orchestrated.
According to data from the Ministry of Education published on Thursday, while 458,521 students had registered to take the JEE Mains in the first three days, only 343,958 went to take the exams. This is almost a 25% attrition. The JEE Mains exam will continue until September 6.
The dropping out of nearly 115,000 students is a significant number considering that this could close the door for students to try to get into the best engineering schools in the country.
According to data from the Ministry of Education, while day one saw only 54.67% attendance at exam centers by JEE applicants, day two saw 81% attendance and day three (3 September), was 82%. While the first day was for students seeking admission to Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Planning courses, from September 2, it was for Bachelor of Engineering (BE) and Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) courses .
At least eight states, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Punjab, Odisha and West Bengal, had petitioned the union government and some had even spoken to the prime minister to postpone exams for six to eight weeks. This is due to an increased number of positive coronavirus cases being reported every day in the country, and natural calamities such as floods in parts of the country such as Odisha, Bihar and Assam.
Six states: Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh had approached the Supreme Court on August 28 to request a review of their August 17 order on the JEE and NEET exams. But the higher court has yet to hear her plea for review even as JEE Mains began on September 1. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the plea for review filed by six states on Friday.
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