JEE-Main 4th edition postponed, now to be held from Aug 26-Sept 2: Education minister

The fourth edition of the engineering entrance exam JEE (Main) has been postponed to August 26-September 2 to give aspirants a four-week gap between two sessions of the crucial exam, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

New Delhi: The fourth edition of the engineering entrance exam JEE (Main) has been postponed to August 26-September 2 to give aspirants a four-week gap between two sessions of the crucial exam, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday. The fourth edition of Joint Entrance Examination-Main was earlier scheduled to be held from July 27 to August 2. A total of 7.32 lakh candidates have already registered for the fourth edition of the entrance exam.

"In view of the persistent demand from the student community and to enable the candidates to maximise their performance, the National Testing Agency has been advised to provide a gap of four weeks between session three and four of the JEE (Main) 2021 exam. "Accordingly, the JEE (Main), 2021, session four will now be held on August 26, 27 and 31, and on September 1 and 2. A total of 7.32 lakh candidates have already registered for JEE (Main), 2021, session four," Pradhan tweeted.

The minister said registration for the JEE-Main session four is still in progress. The date of registration will be extended up to July 20, he said. "In order to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cities have been increased from 232 to 334. The number of examination centres in every shift will also be increased from 660 to 828," said Sadhana Parashar, Senior Director of NTA.

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The Ministry of Education had last week announced that the pending editions (third and fourth) of JEE-Main will be conducted from July 20-25 and July 27 to August 2. Candidates have been opposing the move saying there is only two days gap between the two editions. JEE-Mains is being conducted four times a year from the coronavirus-hit current academic session to offer flexibility to students and a chance to improve their scores.

The first phase was held in February and the second in March. The next phases were scheduled for April and May. But those were postponed in view of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that raged through the country affecting lakhs. The JEE-Advanced exam, which is conducted for admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) was also postponed. The exam was scheduled for July 3.

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(PTI)