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JEE (Main) to be conducted in regional languages from 2021

The decision came after a row over the exclusion of other languages for JEE (Main) and conducting the test only in Gujarati
Last Updated 22 October 2020, 16:15 IST

The Centre on Thursday announced that the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) will be conducted in more regional languages from next year in addition to Hindi, English and Gujarati.

Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said in line with the vision of National Education Policy-2020, the Joint Admission Board of JEE (Main) has decided to conduct the examination in more regional languages of India.

Nishank, however, did not specify the languages in which the examinations will be held.

The Minister said, “The decision of the Joint Admission Board will help students comprehend questions better and score higher”.

At present, the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions to medical courses is conducted in regional languages apart from Hindi and English. Students can appear for NEET in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

The decision came after a row over the exclusion of other languages for JEE (Main) and conducting the test only in Gujarati.

Nishank, on Thursday, said that the JEE Main will be conducted in “regional languages where entry to state engineering colleges is decided based on an examination conducted in regional language”.

Nishank also said this decision will have far-reaching implications as “top-scoring countries in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) examination use mother tongue as a medium of instruction”.

According to officials in the NTA, the decision to add more languages in the list for JEE Main was taken after requests from states.

The JEE (Main) was started in 2013 with the idea to grant admission to engineering colleges across states through a common test. However, only Maharashtra and Gujarat governments had then agreed to admit students in their engineering colleges through JEE (Main), prompting the National Testing Agency (NTA) to issue question papers in Marathi, Urdu and Gujarati, as requested by the states.

In 2016, both the states opted out of the JEE, but the Gujarat government requested the NTA to continue providing question papers in Gujarati for its students.

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(Published 22 October 2020, 16:12 IST)

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