Shaziya Khanam
The Joint Entrance Exam JEE-Mains for admission to engineering colleges began on Tuesday amid stringent precautions and social distancing measures in view of COVID-19 pandemic.
The exam which has been postponed twice in view of COVID-19 pandemic is scheduled from September 1 to 6.
Officials of the National Testing Agency said,”Hand sanitisers are being made available at the entrance of the examination centre and inside the exam hall at all times. The usual process of checking the admit cards of candidates has been replaced with barcode readers, which have been made available to the examination centre authorities.”
“While all the candidates are asked to go to the exam centres with masks and sanitisers, once they enter the centre, they have to use the masks provided by the examination authority. Each candidate will be offered a 3-ply mask at the time of entry and expected to wear the same during the examination in order to avoid any form of unfair means at the time of examination,” the official added.
The first shift of the exam began at 9.30 am while the second shift will begin from 2.30 pm.
“Before the start of each exam shift and after the last shift ends, all seats will be thoroughly sanitised and the work stations and keyboards will be disinfected,” the NTA official said.
Increasing the number of examination centres, alternate seating plans, fewer candidates per room and stumble entry and exit are among the steps the National Testing Agency has taken for safely conducting the crucial exam.
There has been a growing chorus for postponing JEE-Mains and medical entrance exam NEET amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases.
Based on the results of the JEE-Mains Paper 1 and Paper 2, the top 2.45 lakh candidates will be eligible to appear for the JEE-Advanced exam, which is a one-stop exam to get admission into the 23 premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).