JEE Mains 2020: The National Testing Agency (NTA) is set to take the JEE-Mains engineering entrance exam starting Tuesday amid elaborate arrangements to maintain social distancing at the centers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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 has also launched a portal to provide transportation facilities to test centers for candidates. that they need it.
The Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhiyal ‘Nishank’ has called on the top ministers of various states to support the students taking the exam.
There has been a growing chorus for postponing the JEE-Mains exam and the NEET medical entrance exam amid the growing number of COVID-19 cases. The Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) -Principles for Admission to Engineering Courses at IIT, NIT and Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTI) is scheduled to take place from September 1-6. 13. Up to 8.58 lakh candidates have registered for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) -Main and 15.97 lakh have registered for NEET.
“I call on the chief ministers of all states to support our students in unprecedented circumstances and to arrange for applicants not to face any inconvenience. I also appeal to students to have faith in the agencies behind the examination, ”said the Minister of Education.
Increasing the number of test centers, alternative seating plans, fewer candidates per room, and staggered entry and exit are some of the steps the National Testing Agency has taken to safely conduct NEET and JEE.
According to NTA officials, before the start of each exam shift and after the last shift ends, all seats will be fully disinfected and workstations and keyboards will be disinfected. “Hand sanitizers will be available at the entrance of the exam center and inside the exam room at all times. The usual process of verifying candidates’ admission cards will be replaced by barcode readers, which have been made available to the authorities of the exam center, ”said an official.
“While all candidates will be required to come to the exam centers with masks and disinfectants, once they enter the center, they must use the masks provided by the examining authority. Each candidate will be offered a 3-layer mask upon entry and are expected to wear the same during the exam to avoid any form of unfair means at the time of the exam, ”the official said.
There have been demands from various students and parents to postpone entrance exams further in light of the growing number of coronavirus cases. Several opposition leaders, including Congressional Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, DMK President MK Stalin, and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia of Delhi, have also demanded that exams be postponed.
The Supreme Court had previously dismissed a petition to postpone the two exams amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, saying that a “precious year” of students cannot be wasted and that life has to go on.
With just days left until the JEE exams began, the issue had turned into a full-blown political battle last week with ministers from six states: Rajasthan and Punjab (Congress), West Bengal (Trinamool Congress), Jharkhand (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ). , Maharashtra (Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena) – seeking postponement of examinations “in a way that would achieve the dual objective of ensuring that students’ academic year is not wasted and that their health and safety are not compromised” .
They filed a petition in the SC to review their order to take the 2020 JEE and NEET UG entrance tests during the novel coronavirus crises.
Crucial exams have already been postponed twice in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The JEE-Main was originally scheduled to take place April 7-11, but was postponed to July 18-23, the NEET-UG was originally scheduled for May 3, but was postponed to July 26. They were postponed again and are now scheduled for September. Based on the results of the JEE-Mains Paper 1 and Paper 2 exams, 2.45 lakh top candidates will be eligible to sit for the JEE-Advanced exam which is a comprehensive exam to gain admission to the 23 leading institutes of technology in India . (IIT). JEE-Advanced is scheduled for September 27.
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