JEE-Mains 2021 to be held four times, starting 23-26 Feb: Education Minister

In an attempt to provide more opportunities and chances to clear competitive exams for engineering courses, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Wednesday announced that JEE-Mains, will be held four times in a year starting from February 23 to 26, 2021.

The examinations will be conducted in four sessions in February, March, April and May.

"We have examined the suggestions received from students and various quarters and it has been decided that JEE-Mains will be held in four sessions in February, March, April and May," Nishank said.

First session examination will be held from 23 to 26 Feb 2021. Examination results will be declared after 4 to 5 days from last date of exam, the education minister further added.

"The move will ensure that students don't miss out on opportunities due to clash of exams or due to the COVID-19 situation at present," he added.

Nishank also said students will be given a choice to answer 75 questions (25 each in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) out of 90 (30 each in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics). Merit list/ranking will be prepared based on best score of candidate, he added.

Moreover, in view of New Education Policy, JEE(Mains) 2021 exam to be held in 13 languages -Hindi, English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu & Urdu. The exams will be held in Computer-Based test mode while the exam for B.Arch in offline mode, said the Education Minister.

The announcement came after the education minister in an online interaction with students last week, had said that the government is considering the possibility of holding the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) three or four times a year and a proposal is being evaluated on reducing the number of questions that students can attempt in JEE (Main) 2021.

"Thank you all for sharing your constructive suggestions regarding JEE (Main) exams. We have got your suggestions examined. I will be announcing the schedule, number of times the exam will be held at 6 PM today," Nishank tweeted earlier.

The Education Minister has already clarified that there will be no change in the syllabus for medical entrance exam NEET or engineering entrance exam JEE-Main next year.

Competitive exams like JEE and NEET were also postponed twice this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There have been demands for postponement of board exams to May in view of the continued closure of schools and teaching-learning activities being completely online.