JEE Main 2021: 95 per cent candidates appear in first phase

The National Testing Agency conducted the JEE (Main) - 2021 for February (Session 1) between February 23 and February 26, in which, a total of 6,61,776 candidates were registered. About 95% of candidates were allotted their first choice of centre and city.

New Delhi: The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the Joint Entrance Examination (Main), has said that 95 per cent of candidates appeared in the first phase of the JEE Main 2021 exam. 

The NTA held the JEE (Main) — 2021 for February (Session 1) between February 23 and February 26, in which, a total of 6,61,776 candidates were registered. 

As of February 26, 95% of candidates appeared in Paper I BE/ BTech and 81.2 % appeared in Paper 2A/ 2B. About 95% of candidates were allotted their first choice of centre and city. 

The Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that he hopes that NTA will conduct the exam successfully in future also.

"Happy to note that the attendance in JEE first phase exam was 95%. I hope NTA will conduct the exam successfully in future also," he said in a tweet.

The examination was conducted in 331 cities including 9 cities outside India in Colombo, Doha, Dubai, Kathmandu, Muscat, Riyadh, Sharjah, Singapore, and Kuwaiti. 

It was also conducted in 13 languages for the first time. The languages were English, Hindi, Gujarati, Assamese, Bengali. Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. 

Starting this year, the exam is scheduled to be conducted four times a year to offer flexibility to students and a chance to improve their scores. The next phases will be held in March, April and May.

For the smooth conduct of the examination, the following preparations were made: 

a) A Control Room was opened and two National Co-ordinators, 19 Regional Co-ordinators, six Special Coordinators, 261 City Coordinators, and 700 (approx.) Observers were positioned. 

b) A third-party audit of examination centres was done. 

c) Live CCTV surveillance was planned in all examination centres to curb malpractices in the examination. The NTA made arrangements for live viewing at any remote location and recording CCTVs Systems of all examination centres from the Control Room located in the NTA premises of New Delhi. 

d) In order to stop cheating using mobile networks, jammers were installed in all the Centres. 

e) NTA also used AI to identify potential impersonators.