Students skip JEE Main 2020 due to safety concerns
While many candidates plan to take JEE Main 2021, others are weighing alternative options
c-Sheetal.Banchariya@timesgroup.com 07.09.2020
Around 9 lakh students had registered for JEE Main 2020. Of the 4,58,521 candidates, who had to appear for the exam in the first three days, around 3,43,958 appeared. As many as 1,12,247 candidates were registered to appear in the BArch/BPlanning exam on September 1, but the turnout was only 61,366 (54.67%) across India. In Lucknow, 44% of students could not appear for the exam on day1and around 45% took the exam in Ludhiana. Several aspirants have chosen not to appear for the coveted entrance exam due to the safety concerns amid coronavirus outbreak.
Abhirup Chakraborty from Asansol, West Bengal, cleared class XII from CISCE board this year. He aspires to become an AI professional, but he had to give a miss at his chance of joining an engineering institute this year.
“As we have seen in KCET conducted last month and in the JEE Main exam, the SOPs are not completely followed. Thus, the chances of getting infected are very high. If I contract the virus, I would risk my entire family. I live with my grandparents, so it is a choice between family and career,” says Abhirup, who is planning to appear for JEE 2021. As he is interested in coding, he has learnt various programming languages in the past. He plans to soon pursue online courses in machine learning. The plans are different for 18-yearold Bhopal boy, Aniruddha Sharma. He is not appearing for the exam because “despite following SOPs, authorities will not be able to detect cases of COVID-19”.
Instead of waiting for a year, Aniruddha is planning to appear for three other exams – IISER Entrance Test, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Admission Test and Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI) Entrance Exam – as fewer candidates apply for these exams compared to JEE Main.
“With very few students, there will be comparatively lesser risk of being infected by the virus. If nothing works out, I will join the Manipal Institute of Technology in Jaipur, where I secured a seat after taking the entrance test in online proctored mode while sitting at my home,” he says
Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) will release the KCET 2021 admit card in April. Admit cards will be available online on the official website kea.kar.ac.in up to April last week. Students have to download the KCET admit card 2021 and take a print of it to appear in the exam. KCET admit card will have details about exam date and time, address of exam centre, candidates basic details like name, signature, photograph, paper for which appearing and exam day guidelines.
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