New Delhi: Nearly 15,000 engineering aspirants have already registered for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains in the three days since the government reopened the application window on 19 May, ThePrint has learnt.
The reopening of the window was specifically meant to provide an alternative to students who were forced to cancel their plans to study abroad because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown.
The deadline to file fresh applications ends 24 May.
“As of 22 May, nearly 15,000 students have registered for JEE Mains… Out of them, 11,357 have already paid the exam fees,” said a senior official from the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
JEE Mains is meant for admission to various engineering colleges in the country apart from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). To secure admission in one of the IITs, students need to qualify JEE Mains and then appear for JEE Advanced.
Registration for JEE Mains had been concluded by the first week of March, but the exam was postponed as the entire nation went into lockdown later that month to check the spread of Covid-19.
Talking about reopening the registration window, the official added, “We have received emails from students who said they had to cancel their plans to go abroad due to the Covid-19 situation and they have few options of studying in India. They requested us to reopen the JEE window, hence we took the call.”
More than 9 lakh students have already registered for JEE Mains, which is scheduled between 18 July and 23 July.
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‘A chance for those left out’
Although the number of applicants is likely to go up, officials in the ministry said the additional students are not likely to burden the system.
“Most of the students who were interested in pursuing engineering in India have already applied for JEE. Those who will apply in the latest round are not likely to be much, so the additional numbers are not likely to add extra burden on the system,” said a second ministry official.
“Restarting the application process was just a way of giving a chance to those who were left out,” the official added.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ announced on 19 May that he had directed the National Testing Agency (NTA), the autonomous agency overseeing exams to higher education institutes, to reopen the application window for JEE Mains. The window reopened the same day.
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