Blame it on the prolonged lockdown due to COVID pandemic, a large chunk of students have seemingly chosen not to appear for the second attempt of JEE Main exam, which is now in progress.
The attendance of candidates hovers around just 50% at three examination centres in Tiruchi district.
It takes enormous practice to perform well in JEE Main that determines eligibility for admission of candidates into National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Information Technology, and other institutions participating through Central Seat Allocation Board. JEE (Main) will also be an eligibility test for JEE (Advanced) to be in the reckoning for admission into IITs.
The lockdown period had apparently diluted the confidence of many a student who would have already got through the first attempt to keep away from the second attempt, observe faculty of National Institute of Technology - Tiruchi (NIT-T)
From 2019, NTA began conducting JEE Main twice a year, during January and April. Candidates can appear in both sessions, and the best of the two NTA (National Testing Agency) Scores will be considered. This year, the April examination had to be pushed to July and again to September due the pandemic. This element of uncertainty had unsettled the minds of many a student, a senior professor of NIT-T observed.
“Since the best of the two NTA scores will be considered for preparation of merit list/ rankings, those who had performed fairly well in the first attempt would have chosen not to appear for the second attempt. This factor, probably, explains why there are many absentees for the ongoing second session of JEE Main exam,” said K. Sankaranarayanasamy, Director, National Institute of Technology - Puducherry.
Nevertheless, the awareness level of students of availing the utility of Home State quota has been on the rise over the last two decades. About 15 years ago, NIT-T used to get students only from a handful of schools in Chennai for the entire 50 % Home Quota seats. With the progression of years, students of smaller cities and towns are also able to make their presence felt, he said.
On their part, heads of a few leading CBSE schools that roped in coaching academies to train their students have not lost hope that there will be improvement in the number of students appearing for JEE Advanced. Only the top 2,50,000 candidates in JEE Main will be eligible to take up the JEE Advanced.
