JEE held in 52 centres amid tight Corona norms

Amaravati: The first session of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains for admission to IITs was conducted in 52 centres in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday.

The officials made all arrangements to ensure the safety of the students in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and students expressed satisfaction over the arrangements.

Absence of RTC buses had caused some problems to the students in reaching the centres in time. While most of them reached the centres two hours before the scheduled time, some had to spend tense moments as they were late by couple of minutes as they had to cover long distances of over 25 to 30 kms.

Examination centres were set up at Amaravati, Vijayawada, Eluru, Guntur, Kadapa, Visakhapatnam and other places. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) laid down by the National Testing Agency (NTA) was followed by sanitizing the exam centres before and after the exam.

As per the SOP, the candidates appearing for the exam have to give a self-declaration stating they are not Covid-19 positive. They were advised to carry a transparent ballpoint pen, additional photograph, personal hand sanitiser, transparent water bottle and original identity proof to the exam centre.

On arrival at the centres, the students were asked to dump the masks they were wearing in the dustbin and pick up fresh masks from a box kept nearby.

For JEE (Main) 72,681 students have registered in Andhra Pradesh. The COVID-19 scare led to 35 per cent dip in registrations for JEE compared to the first phase held in January. Every year, the exam is held in two phases - January and April and the best score is taken into consideration for admission. In January, 1,29,100 students had appeared in the exam in Andhra Pradesh.