NTA allows students without Class 10 marks to apply for JEE

The National Testing Agency (NTA), the body conducting the Joint Engineering Entrance (JEE), has allowed students of Tamil Nadu State Board, to write the entrance without marks.

This is following a request by the state government to the Union Education ministry for allowing the students of Tamil Nadu who have passed the tenth exam in 2021 to apply for the JEE.

The NTA stated that options of 'passing year' and 'school board' will be disabled and the associated fields for marks/CGPA will not be visible for Tamil Nadu State Board candidates who have passed their Class 10 exams in 2021. There were widespread complaints as the students, who passed the Tamil Nadu boards in 2021, were not able to apply for the JEE.

Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is the prestigious entrance examination for entering the premium engineering institutions of the country, including the elite Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). While more than 10 lakh students apply for the JEE, there are only around 10,000 seats in the IITs of the country. The JEE scores can be used for admission to other engineering colleges in the country as well.

R Balasubramanian, father of Amish Mohan, a Class 12 student eagerly preparing for JEE and hailing from Nagercoil, said, "It's a big relief as my son was in a depressed mood after he was not able to apply for the JEE after spending long grueling hours into preparing for the entrance. I do thank the Tamil Nadu government for having taken up the matter with the Union government and the NTA for allowing the students to apply without marks."