Dip In Number Of Students Appearing For JEE Main Exams This Year? Here's What Statistics Say

JEE 2020 Exam Attendance: The West Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee has claimed that only 25 percent of candidates were able to attend the JEE exams on the second day of the entrance exams. Here's more about the overall situation so far.

(Image: PTI)

New Delhi: After the delay caused by the pandemic and in spite of the massive backlash by parents, students, and political leaders, the Education Ministry and the National Testing Agency(NTA) decided to go ahead with Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2020 exams starting from September 1. Now, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that despite arrangements by the state government only 25 percent of candidates were able to appear for the exams on the second day of the exams. "Yesterday, out of 4,652 candidates for JEE in West Bengal only 1,167 could appear for it despite all arrangements by the state government for them. This means only 25 percent could attempt to write the examinations and the rest 75 percent could not in West Bengal. We had made the arrangements as per the instructions (of the central government)," she said in a report by PTI. Banerjee who was among several other leaders against conducting the JEE and NEET exams also claimed that even in other states, only half of the examinees managed to turn up due the Covid 19 pandemic situation. "Who will be held responsible for those who could not sit for the examinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic?" she questioned in the report. ALSO READ: NEET, JEE Candidate Guidelines: Exams Ahead? Here's The New Examination Protocol Released By Health Ministry Was there a decrease in the number of students who appeared for the exams this year? According to media reports, on Day 1 around 44 per cent of candidates skipped the JEE exams in the Lucknow city. Only 597 out of 1,065 candidates from various districts of Uttar Pradesh appeared for the entrance exam at the Lucknow centre and as many as 469 preferred to drop out. Similarly in Ludhiana, only 45.87 per cent attempted the test. Out of the 388 candidates who had registered for the JEE Main, 178 appeared in two shifts on the first day of the entrance test. A report by Times of India says that in Assam, there was only a 50 percent turnout. But this trend seems to have changed by the second day. According to a report by Hindustan Times, the attendance picked up on Wednesday which was the second day of the exam when over 80 percent of students turned up for the exams. Though official numbers are still awaited from the NTA, the report says that 84.09 percent gave the exams on the second day. But problems still persist, a plea was filed by Nitesh Bawankar, a resident of Bhandara in Maharashtra seeking postponement of the JEE Mains exam, highlighting the problems faced by the students residing in flood-hit areas of Nagpur, Amravati, Akola, Chandrapur, Gondiaand Gadchiroli districts will find it difficult to appear for the JEE-Main examination. The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court refused to stay the JEE-Main examination but said that students from flood-hit areas can file application seeking re-examination. Mamata Banerjee has also urged the central government to think about those students who could not attend the exams. "Our students are in great trouble. So many of them were not able to attempt JEE. That's why we had requested the central government to appeal to the Supreme Court or review the matter again so that students are not deprived," she said in the PTI report. The JEE-Main exams are being held from September 1-6, while the NEET 2020 exam is scheduled for September 13.