The Union government last year made official the establishment of National Testing Agency (NTA) as an autonomous and self-sustained body to take over the responsibility of entrance exam form CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education). Earlier, the Union budget of 2017 also put forward the proposal for setting up of NTA for the said purpose. Now, in the latest update, it was revealed that NTA is planning to conduct JEE Main twice a year from 2019.
The report of conducting JEE Main exam twice a year by NTA from 2019 was also reported at the time of finalizing of NTA bill by the government last November. However, an official establishment of NTA has signalled that the reported thing is soon to become a reality.
Confusion amongst Student Community
Students who are due to take JEE Main 2019 exam next year are surrounded by confusion. Students are worrying that whether the new exam conducting authority would alter the pattern, syllabus, mode, or scheme of the exam.
The plan of twice a year exam conducting mechanism is not clear to students as they have queries like when would the admissions begin? How would the counselling be done? What would be the seat distribution? Etc. Experts and officials from CBSE are doubting the capabilities of NTA to conduct exam on such a large scale as the body has no prior experience.
Other exams also expected to be held twice
Apart from JEE Main 2019, NTA is expected to conduct other exams like NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test), UGC-NET, CTET, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya entrance test (which were earlier conducted by CBSE) twice a year from the following year.
The logic which is stipulated behind conducting JEE Main 2019 and other exams twice a year is that students would get adequate opportunity to test their potential and would have a fair chance of grabbing a seat. Since, NEET is a single entrance exam for medical aspirants and with plans of conducting a single exam for engineering entrance as well it would be good enough to conduct the exam two times a year.
The focus should be on Preparation
Teachers and educationists have advised the students to set aside all their doubts and focus on their preparation as that would only define their fate in the exam. Teachers have said that all the nitty-gritty’s of the exam would be clarified by the concerned authority and not much is to worry for aspirants as testing standards would remain same.
NTA is set up as a society under the society registration act of 1860. It would be chaired by an eminent educationist appointed by the government. The body would also include CEO and Board of Governors to look after its functioning. The government would provide a one-time grant of INR 25 Crores to NTA post which the body would be financially self-sustainable.
Wait for clarifications
At present, there is nothing much to worry for students as they are getting an opportunity to give two shots at the exam within a span of few months. However, for more clarity and clean picture of the proposed examination structure students must wait for further developments.