Joint Admission Board (JAB) announced on Tuesday i.e. October 13, 2020, that students who couldn’t appear for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2020 shall be given a second attempt in 2021. This is a one-time measure announced by the authorities for students who couldn’t give the exam due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These students will not have to re-qualify the JEE Mains 2021 examination and shall be directly permitted to appear for the national-level examination. This decision comes after some students requested the Ministry of Education and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi to allow students affected by COVID-19 to re-appear for the entrance test this year.
The decision was taken on Tuesday during a virtual emergency meeting organised by IITs’ JAB. The committee consisted of various IIT directors and college facility as members. This information was issued by IIT Delhi which was the organising body of the JEE Advanced 2020 examination across the country. Earlier this month, many students had addressed the Education Ministry and IIT-Delhi to grant a second chance to all those students who couldn’t appear for the examination. Director of IIT-Delhi, V. Ramagopal Rao had informed that the issue shall be considered in the upcoming JAB meeting. Subsequently, the decision was announced to let the pandemic-affected students appear for the JEE Advanced 2021 exam directly. However, this provision shall only be a one-time exemption.
IIT-Delhi issued a public statement on Tuesday, announcing the details and decisions taken during the emergency meeting. According to the statement, JAB has the authority to devise policies, rules and regulations of regarding JEE entrance test. Subsequently, the board has decided on relaxing the eligibility criteria and has granted an extra attempt to candidates who couldn’t appear for the examination on account of being COVID positive under the guidance of the IIT-Council. In the emergency meeting, JAB also discussed various alternatives for students who couldn’t appear for the examination due to COVID-related restrictions imposed by the government. Hence, as a compensatory measure, they shall be allowed to appear for JEE Advanced 2021 without affecting the academics of those who appeared for the test this year.
JAB has also declared that those candidates eligible for second-attempt next year shall not appear for the JEE Mains 2021 entrance test to qualify for JEE advanced 2021. They shall be allowed to directly appear for the examination based on their successful registration to appear for JEE Advanced 2020. The relaxation of eligibility criteria shall also be in accordance with the age criteria decided by the board for the exam. Furthermore, these candidates shall be considered in addition to rather than a part of the total new candidates appearing for JEE Advanced next year. These decisions were taken to counter the COVID-related problems suffered by candidates this year and to secure their academics.
