JEE (Main) begins today amid strict Covid precautions

NEW DELHI: Postponed twice due to the pandemic, the joint (main) entrance examination for admission to the best engineering colleges in the country will begin with unprecedented preparations starting Tuesday. Approximately 9.58 lakh applicants have registered for the exam to be held from September 1 to 6 at 660 testing centers. While the governments of Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have ensured applicants free transportation, a group of IIT alumni and students have launched a portal to provide transportation facilities to exam centers for applicants in need. Ramesh Pokhriyal, the Union’s education minister, has called on top ministers to support the candidates.

According to Vineet Joshi, CEO of the National Testing Agency, a comprehensive standard operating procedure has been put in place for candidates and center staff to ensure social distancing and safe test delivery.

There has been a demand to further postpone the JEE (main) and the NEET-UG medical entrance exam amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. The JEE (major) is done for admission to engineering courses at IIT, NIT, and Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTI), the score of which is also used by various state and private engineering universities.

“I appeal to the chief ministers of every state to support our students in unprecedented circumstances and to make the necessary arrangements so that applicants do not have to face any inconvenience. I also appeal to the students to have faith in the agencies behind the test, ”Pokhriyal said.

The number of applicants per room has been reduced from 24 to 12 for the computer testing and the computers used on the first shift of the day will not be used on the second shift. “Staggered entry and exit, not allowing parents / guardians to gather near the center will help in crowd management and social distancing,” Joshi said, adding that each protocol will be strictly enforced.

In accordance with current SOP, prior to the start of each shift and after the last shift ends, all seats will be sanitized, including the workstation and keyboards. The entire center, its walls, bathrooms and doors will also be thoroughly sanitized.

Hand sanitizers will be available at the entrance of the exam center and inside the exam room. The usual process of checking candidates’ admission cards will be replaced by barcode scanners. Although candidates are required to come to the testing centers with masks and disinfectants, at the center they must use the masks provided by the testing authority. Each candidate will be offered a three-layer mask at registration and are expected to wear the same during the exam.

The JEE (main) was originally scheduled to run from April 7-11, but was postponed to July 18-23. It was postponed again until September. Based on the results of the JEE (Mains), the top 2.5lakh candidates will be eligible to apply to the JEE (Advanced) for admission to the top 23 Institutes of Technology in India.