Aspiring Engineers See Hopes Dash; Many Complain of Glitches, Other Issues in JEE Mains

New Delhi: The pandemic has changed the lives of hundreds of students, especially the ones who were about to start the careers post-completion of their 12th Grade. And among this batch of 2022, the most vulnerable were the science students who were supposed to sit for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Mains and Advanced, an exam through which a student gets admission into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), the best Institutions for engineering in the country. 

 For the ones who passed out in 2020, the last attempt for the exam was in 2022. However, even that attempt did not go as they expected, and for no fault of theirs. The students from over 200 centres across the country out of the total of approximately 550 centres alleged there were problems with servers, computers they gave exams on, and much more. Some even alleged that their exam centres were changed at the last moment and were kilometres away from where they were. 

 A number of JEE Main 2022 aspirants complained of experiencing server troubles during both shifts at various testing locations and wanted an additional attempt. Students described their encounter on Twitter. Some reported that the exam wasn't even held during the second shift, while others said that the questions weren't even loaded properly on their devices' screens.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) was requested by candidates to hold an additional exam for them as a make-up for the attempt that went to waste.

 One of the students stated that even after the exam began, not all of the questions were visible on the screen. The exam was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m, and the student claimed she received the question paper at 10:30 am. She said that 26 of the 90 questions could not be presented due to server problems. She continued by saying that the invigilator was alerted to the incident and informed her that a server issue was to blame. The student went on to say that all of the other students seated in the lab were left in the dark because the problem could not be fixed, even after refreshing the screen.

 One such student, Aman, a resident of a small town in Maharashtra, who is now studying at a private college in Nagpur after failed attempts at requesting the Centre to hear his pleas. As a child, Aman was a bright student, scored more than 90% in his board exams, and always aspired to study engineering at an IIT. 

 His first attempt came in 2020 when he finished his 12th grade, and he cleared the JEE Mains and Advanced. All by self-study. “We are not very privileged with good coaching facilities like it is for the other big city kids. Therefore, I decided to take a gap year, and study better from Nagpur at a coaching institute. But very soon, the country was locked down,” said Aman. 

 The lockdown stole the opportunity to study better from many like Aman himself. Kids who shift to another city to prepare for Engineering exams all found themselves stuck without a proper guide throughout 2020 and mid of 2021. When Aman gave an attempt in 2022, due to no guidance and lack of preparation because he along with other family members was suffering from Covid, had to take a shot at it in the same condition. “As expected, I could not clear it. Now I had only one attempt left. Soon enough, I was compelled to take admission to a private college at Nagpur so that I could prepare for my IIT simultaneously,” he said. He did so but the ‘technical glitches’ came his way and he could not give the exam to his full potential. 

 Many students faced a similar situation, first hit by the pandemic, and then by technical errors that they had no role to play with. “Had it not been for the glitches that came my way throughout the exam, I would have definitely cleared and fulfilled my IIT dream.” Aman says he is now stuck in the private college in Nagpur, studying a branch he does not like, and every second day, feels like leaving everything and going back home.

 Parents at a centre in Moosarambagh told NewsClick that despite arriving well in advance of the 9 a.m shift start time, students were turned away at the centre's gate because of server problems. This prevented the morning shift exam from beginning even at 10:30 a.m. One of the parents claimed that it was only when they began to protest that students were permitted into the exam centre. A parent by the name of Venkateshwaralu said: "After the protest, we were told that the server is down on one of the floors."

 Another student claimed that when she only had one photo, she was instructed to bring two. Even after making it back on time, she was denied admission to the testing location. Students reportedly had to wait a long time for the second shift of the exam due to the delay in the first shift of JEE Main 2022.

 Ishika is a resident of Nagpur and was born in a middle-class family. Her father is a government servant, and as much as it is a boon if the child goes to a government-aided college, the fee for engineering and other technical courses is still a lot. Ishika is another such student who faced multiple problems at her exam centre. 

 “I had just sat to give the exam when the power at my centre went off. It took 15 minutes for the electricity to come back, and even when it did, the age-old PC in front of me took time to log in. Seeing the problems in the boot of the computer, I called my invigilator but even he could not do anything,” said Ishika. Later, she also faced problems with the questions not loading fast enough. Ishika says that in total, she lost at least 40-50 minutes of her time. 

 Students have written multiple letters to the Education Minister and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) but all in vain. They have received no response. Not just them, but in total nine MPs have supported the cause of the students and have written letters to the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. However, no response was received by them either. 

 Parents claimed that the attitude of the authorities was even “more pitiful”, as they simply avoided responsibility by claiming they had no control over network problems. Some pupils who were impatiently awaiting the exam claimed that when parents inquired about what the students should do next, there was no response or even direction.

 The issue first arose during the morning session. Although the exam was supposed to start at 9 a.m, students weren't admitted until 10.30 a.m. For the first session, the centre was assigned to more than 200 candidates, but 130 students have turned away due to server problems despite being at the centre before 7.30 a.m.

 Numerous coaching centres examined the first session and found that the math questions were moderate and largely from calculus, coordinate geometry, algebra, and 3D geometry. Questions from Kinematics, Optics, Electrostatics, Magnetism, Current Electricity, Communication Systems, Heat, and Thermodynamics were included in the simple to moderate-level physics section.

 The chemistry test was the simplest of the three, with questions from the chapters “Mole Concept," "Chemistry in Everyday Life," "Chemical Bonding," and "Coordination Compounds" being covered. Inorganic chemistry was given more importance. The students we spoke with narrated and accepted the same analysis as done by the coaching centres. All had a firm opinion, had it not been for the technical problems, they would have cleared the test. 

 It is not like NTA was not approached by these 18-20-year-olds. They tried emailing and addressing the problems they faced during the exam, the reply that came from NTA did accept that there were technical problems at some centres, but it also said that the students had been given enough attempts and that if they could not clear it with those, it was not possible for them to do it now.