A new low: Applications for Jee-mains plummet
Turnout has been lowest since introduction of exam in 2013
Mumbai:applications for the Joint Entrance Examination (Jee)-mains has hit an all-time low, since its introduction in 2013, with only 9.41 lakh students registering for the exam in 2019. This is a drop of more than 2 lakh aspirants from 11.40 lakh candidates who had applied for the exam this year. A candidate’s score in JEE (Mains) determines his eligibility for the Jee-advanced exam, which a single-window entrance exam for admissions to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS).
Shalabh, professor, Iit-kanpur and organising chairperson of Jee-advanced 2018 attributes the dip to other lucrative career choices.
“The demand for engineering seats has been on a decline. Over the last few years, students have been showing more sensibility and have refused to be a part of the rat-race. The fierce competition among IIT aspirants has forced more and more students to find other career options over the traditional engineering and medicine fields,” he said.
He added that the difficulty in getting the IIT and subject of choice is also causing a fall in the numbers. “Mostly, only those students who are interested in entering an IIT apply for the Jeemains. Over the years, the odds of getting an admission in an IIT and the course of choice has become so low that students don’t see any point in going through the stress and struggle,” he added.
While the lower demand for engineering courses could be one of the reasons for this decline in registrations for Jee-mains, experts also felt that online admissions could be another factor discouraging students against registering for the exam.
“Many engineering aspirants are from rural India, with no access to computers to appear for mock-tests. This could have been another reason for the sharp decline in applications,” said
Pravin Tyagi founder-director of Pace Junior Science Colleges.
The registrations stood at 11.86 lakh in 2017. This was a considerable dip from the 12.07 lakh and 13.04 lakh students registered in 2016 and 2015 respectively.
2019 ASPIRANTS CAN APPEAR TWICE
From 2019, a Jee-aspirant will have the choice of taking the exam twice (January and April cycles). While the difficulty level
and exam pattern will remain similar to last few years, the exam will be conducted only in the online format. The exam will be conducted over 14 days in each phase, specially designed to reduce cheating and manipulation during exams. Students will be allowed to appear for either or both of the exam cycles and can choose their best performance to be eligible for admissions. Until this year, the exam was held in a single phase.