Scores of engineering aspirants are demanding that the first session of the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE)-Main scheduled in January be postponed as the crucial exam is slated to be held just a fortnight before board exams and may clash with practical exams.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) had on 15 December 2022 announced that the engineering entrance exam JEE-Main will be conducted from 24 to 31 January, except on Republic Day and that the second session of the exam will be held in April.
The class 12 CBSE board exams are slated to be held from 15 February 2023 while practical exams will be conducted in January.
Hashtag “postponeJEEMains” is trending on social media with aspirants tagging the education ministry and National Testing Agency (NTA) raising their demands.
“Pursuing engineering courses and becoming an engineer is a dream of lakhs of students and the emotions of their parents and teachers are connected with this exam. But due to the declaration of premature dates, they have started to give up on their dreams,” said Ritu, a JEE-Main aspirant.
Sarfaraz, a social media user tweeted, “Not allowing us a fair chance in JEE Mains will be huge injustice. So please bring about fairness when it comes to exams as important as JEE”.
Anubha Sahai, a lawyer and President of India Wide Parents Association, said, “Students are in stress and this is serious. Only a couple of days ago three students died by suicide in coaching hub Kota due to stress”.
“The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) schedule was released recently and the exam will be held in May. Then why can’t the same be done for JEE? There should be uniformity for all entrance exams,” Sahai stated.
“Assam Boards practicals fare beginning from 25 January, Bihar Board practicals from 10 January, Telangana Boards practical from 20 January and JEE Main from 24-31 January. Aren’t all these dates clashing with each other? Why cannot the government see,” said Aditya Jha, an engineering aspirant.
Sadhana Parashar, Senior Director (Exams), NTA, had earlier said, “For Academic Session 2023-24, it has been decided that the JEE(Main)-2023 will be conducted in two sessions. Session one (January 2023) and session two (April 2023)”.
The exam will be conducted in 13 languages – English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
“In the first session of JEE (Main)- 2023, only session one will be visible and candidates can opt for that. In the next, session two will be visible and the candidates can opt for that. The application window for session 2 will be re-opened as per the details available in the information bulletin and will also be notified separately,” she said.
