JEE Main (Feb) 2022 likely to be postponed amid assembly polls, surging covid cases: Experts

Partha Halder, the centre head of FIIT JEE Punjabi Bagh in Delhi, said the National Testing Agency (NTA) is yet to release the official notification and students are unsure of how the four attempts will be scheduled.

“The provision of four attempts was introduced only last year, with the first session scheduled in February and then all the remaining sessions getting rescheduled in the Covid aftermath. This year, we are not even sure if NTA plans to conduct the engineering entrance test in February or not,” Halder said.

“The third wave of Covid does not propose a conducive environment to go ahead with the exams,” he added.

Academics Director at Vidyamandir Classes, Saurabh Kumar, also hinted at a strong possibility of JEE Main 2022 not beginning in February.

“It will most likely be conducted in March, largely due to the worsening Covid situation and the assembly elections. Most exams scheduled before March 10 are expected to be postponed. Besides, the NTA usually releases the notification with enough time for candidates to apply, and the agency has not opened the registration window yet, ” Kumar said.

The indianexpress.com tried reaching out to the director-general of NTA, Vineet Joshi, and senior director Sadhana Parashar, but they declined to comment on JEE Main 2022.

At the same time, students are concerned about appearing for the board examination and the engineering entrance exams in the same month amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Yash Raj, 19, from Bihar’s Patna said rescheduling JEE Main for March is most likely to increase pressure on aspirants as they will have to take the board exams as well.

“Last year, the central government waived off the eligibility criteria for 75 per cent marks in class 12 as a one-time measure. Many students have not been able to fare well in the term-1 board exams due to the unfamiliar pattern and will now be focusing on the term-2 board exams. Aspirants have no information about eligibility criteria, the application process, and exam dates, which is adding fuel to the fire of anxiety,” Raj said.

Vidyamandir Classes’ Kumar, however, said this year’s board exams won’t be much of a bother for students because of the divided syllabus.

“Board exams are also expected to be further pushed to April. Term-1 has already been conducted with 50 per cent of the syllabus, and term-2 will have questions only from the remaining half of the syllabus. The pattern is also in line with the competitive exams, which have only objective questions,” he said.

However, some academicians said they are hopeful of the situation getting under control by February.

“The exam is most likely to be held in the second or third week of February, and the number of active cases may come down,” NIT Warangal director Ramana Rao told indianexpress.com. “The rest is up to the expert committee to make a decision,” he added.