National Testing Agency conducted the first cycle or the February session of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2021 from February 23 to 26, 2021. Authorities issued a press release on February 26, 2021, on the official website of the examination i.e., jeemain.nta.nic.in. According to the press release, the national-level entrance exam’s first session was successfully conducted with 95% attendance recorded. Furthermore, the notice informed that the examination was not conducted in Bahrain due to the imposed lockdown.
The February session of JEE Main 2021 was conducted from February 23 to 26, 2021. A total of 6,61,776 candidates had registered for the first session. As recorded on February 26, 2021, at 6:00 pm, 95% of candidates appeared for Paper I (B.Tech or B.E) whereas 81.2% candidates appeared for Papers 2A and 2B. Moreover, approximately 95% of candidates were allotted centres and cities according to their first preference.
The national-level examination was conducted in 331 cities out of which 9 cities were located outside India. These cities include Colombo, Doha, Dubai, Kathmandu, Muscat, Riyadh, Sharjah, Singapore, and Kuwait. The press release issued by NTA also informed that the examination could not be conducted in Bahrain due to lockdown.
Authorities ensured students that they are in constant communication with the Indian Embassy located in Bahrain. They shall chalk out a plan to conduct Paper 2A (B.Arch) and Paper 2B (B.Planning), keeping the interests of candidates in mind. However, interested candidates can appear for Paper I (B.Tech/B.E) with the rest of the aspirants in the March session.
JEE Main 2021 was conducted in 13 languages for the first time. These languages include English, Hindi, Gujarati, along with Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Along with this provision, NTA also took multiple security measures to ensure smooth conduction of examination.
NTA established a control room comprising of 2 National Co-ordinators, 19 Regional Co-ordinators, 261 City Co-ordinators and approximately 700 observers. Moreover, a third-party audit of all examination centres was organised. Jammers were installed in all examination centres to prevent cheating through mobile networks. NTA had also utilised AI-based technology to identify impersonators.
Authorities had also made live CCTV surveillance facility available at all examination centres to prevent any malpractices during the exam. Along with this, live-viewing of centres at any remote location and CCTV recording systems of all exam centres were made available in the control room. This room is located in the NTA headquarters in New Delhi.
The press release further went on to thank all the JEE Main 2021 February -session candidates and their accompanying parents for following all Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) prescribed by the NTA. The February 2021 session ended yesterday i.e., February 26, 2021. The March session is scheduled to subsequently begin on March 15, 2021.
