Inclusion of Bengali in JEE is highly justified: WB Education Dept to NTA

The Department of Higher Education West Bengal on Thursday wrote to National Testing Agency (NTA) saying that inclusion of Bengali is highly justified when JEE (Main)-2020 question paper will also be in the Gujarati language.

In a letter to NTA, the principal secretary of the Higher Education Department, West Bengal, said that a good number of brilliant aspirants from West Bengal have reported that they will have to face some problems if the medium of question paper is made only in English, Hindi and Gujarati language.

"They also reported that as they are sitting for such an important career breaking competitive entrance test like JEE (Main) where equal opportunity should be offered to all candidates. It is needless to mention here that the Indian Constitution in its 8th Schedule declared 22 languages officially including Bengali," the letter read.

Stating that the demand of students is highly justified, the principal secretary said: "I would request you to consider and introduce Bengali and other regional languages also as one of the mediums while setting/preparing the question papers for January JEE (Main)-2020 to alleviate the grievance of the aspiring candidates from West Bengal as well as their conscious guardians."

This comes after it was announced that the JEE exam will be conducted in English, Hindi and Gujarati languages by NTA from this year. Following this, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee questioned the decision of including Gujarati as an optional language in the crucial JEE and demanded the inclusion of other regional languages including Bengali in the paper."I love the Gujarati language. But, why have other regional languages been ignored? Why injustice is being meted out to them? If Gujarati has to be there, then all regional languages including Bengali must be there," Banerjee had said on Twitter.