JEE Mains exam postponed: Students, parents raise concerns

Weeks after the National Testing Agency (NTA) postponed the third session of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains originally scheduled to take place in the last week for April, it has now indefinitely postponed the fourth and final session of the same exam on Tuesday

Weeks after the National Testing Agency (NTA) postponed the third session of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains originally scheduled to take place in the last week for April, it has now indefinitely postponed the fourth and final session of the same exam on Tuesday. The news was not received well by affected students and parents, most of whom shared their displeasure on various social media platforms.

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“Instead of conducting online exams and putting students out of their misery, the Central and state governments are repeatedly delaying exams which is only making the situation worse for students, who consider this their most important year academically,” said Anupama Rai, mother of a JEE aspirant. She added that many JEE aspirants had not appeared for the February and March sessions of the exam because they wanted to focus on their Class 12 exam, and were waiting for the upcoming sessions to appear for their exam.

This year, to give JEE aspirants a better chance at bettering their performance, the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry had announced that JEE Mains will be held in four sessions and students will get the choice to pick the highest score.

As per information shared by NTA, 6.20 lakh and 5.56 lakh students appeared for the first two sessions held across India in the months of February and March. Rising Covid-19 cases, however, pushed NTA authorities to decide to postpone the April and now the May session indefinitely.

“The rescheduling of April and May sessions of JEE Mains will be announced subsequently. Registrations for the May session will also be announced at a later date,” said the statement released by the NTA.

Advait Parmar, 17, could not appear for the second session of JEE Mains in March as he was in quarantine after his father tested positive for Covid-19. “I re-registered for the April session of the exam and wanted to tick-off at least one exam of my list but now, the April, as well as the May sessions, have been postponed and I am unable to focus on studies anymore,” said Advait, who is also preparing for his Class 12 exam which remains postponed across school education boards in the country.

Many also took to Twitter to share their concern with the state and Central government. “In the peak of the second wave of Covid, the government was busy holding election rallies and allowing religious festivals but are delaying exams which affect lives of lakhs of students across country. This is unacceptable,” said Ashutosh Singh, parent of another aspirant.