NEW DELHI: Nearly 74 per cent of those, who had registered for the JEE (Mains) exam held between September 1-6, appeared for the test, data released by the government has shown.
Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that 6.35 lakh, out of 8.58 registered candidates, wrote the JEE (Mains)—the competitive examination for admission into engineering institutions.
Many said that this could be one of the lowest attendance for the test in recent times which was held despite major protests by students and opposition parties and several state governments due to COVID-19 pandemic.
"Out of 8.58 lakh JEE Main applicants, 6.35 lakhs appeared for the exam. Central & respective State Governments assured all possible assistance to the students, for which I compliment all State Governments as well. This entire effort displayed the spirit of cooperative federalism," tweeted the minister late on Wednesday evening.
The minister also said that as this test is held twice a year - with the previous one held in January this year - several students who didn't appear for the examination in September may have done well in the January examination and hence did not feel the need to sit for the examination this time. "We are ascertaining those numbers," he said.
Justifying that there was no alternative to going ahead with the tests as per the revised schedule, Nishank also went on to say that any further delay of the examination would not have been in the "interest of our hardworking students and their plans for college admissions".
"Our NDA Government has always been unwavering regarding student welfare & student safety. We will always work for the interests of our youth," he maintained.
As per the data shared by the National Testing Agency which organised the test , the attendance for the exams was low on the first day — 54.67 per cent when the test was for students interested in pursuing B Architecture and B Planning Courses — but picked up on the second and third days to 81.08 and 82.14 %, respectively.
However, the agency has not released attendance figures for the last three days of the tests. The results of the tests are expected on Friday on the basis of which qualifying candidates will sit for JEE-Advanced, meant for admission to IITs and NITs.
The JEE (Advanced) - to be organised by IIT-Delhi this year - is scheduled for 27 September. Meanwhile, the Education Ministry is now flooded with the demands to postpone the NEET exam, planned for September 13, but it has so far, shown no signs of budging from its stand.