95% candidates appear in first phase of JEE-Mains: Education minister

The first phase of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Mains for admission to engineering colleges in the country saw a 95 per cent attendance, Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank" said on Friday

The first phase of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Mains for admission to engineering colleges in the country saw a 95 per cent attendance, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank" said on Friday.

"Happy to note that the attendance in JEE first phase exam was 95%. I hope NTA will conduct the exam successfully in future also," he said in a tweet.

The entrance exam commenced from Tuesday. This was the first time that the exam was conducted in 13 languages -- Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Hindi, English and Gujarati.

Starting this year, the exam will be conducted four times a year to offer flexibility to students and a chance to improve their scores. The next phases will be held in March, April and May.

"The exam was conducted at 828 centres in 311 cities, including 10 centres abroad -- Bahrain, Colombo, Doha, Dubai, Kathmandu, Muscat, Riyadh, Sharjah, Singapore and Kuwait. All COVID-19 related protocols were followed," a senior official of the National Testing Agency (NTA) said.