Joint Admission Board (JAB) has decided that students who missed the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2020 shall be provided a second attempt next year. The provision is only those candidates who were not able to take the test due to COVID-19. Authorities further stated that these students will not have to re-qualify the JEE Mains 2021 exam and can directly appear for JEE Advanced 2021. The decision came days after a few students appealed to the Ministry of Education and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi to conduct a re-examination for students affected by the pandemic.
The announcement regarding the same has been issued by IIT-Delhi which was the conducting institute of JEE Advanced examination this year. Earlier this month, a few students had approached the institution as well as Education Ministry seeking another exam opportunity for COVID-affected students. V. Ramagopal Rao, director of IIT-Delhi replied that the issue shall be discussed in the upcoming meeting of the admission board. Following this, the decision to allow such students to re-appear for the examination next year was announced. However, this is just a one-time exemption for COVID-affected students.
The statement further informed that JAB has the authority to formulate rules and regulations and, devise policies related to JEE. After considering the problems faced by students this year, the board has decided to relax the eligibility criteria and has permitted students for re-examination next year. However, this provision shall only be given to students who have tested COVID-positive under the guidelines issued by the IIT-council.
JAB also discussed various other alternatives for students who couldn’t appear for the national-level entrance exam this year. Subsequently, such students shall be allowed to appear for JEE Advanced 2021 without appearing for the Mains examination. They shall be eligible for the entrance test based on their successful registration for JEE Advanced 2020. Eligibility criteria shall also be relaxed by taking the age requirements and criteria under consideration. Furthermore, these candidates shall be considered in addition to rather than a part of the total new candidates appearing for the exam next year. All these provision were decided up on in the meeting to tackle the COVID-related problems suffered by many students across the country.
