Bhubaneswar: The Centre has directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to prepare the questions for the JEE Main examinations in eight regional languages including Odia. It will be implemented from 2021.
The decision will immensely help more than 40,000 students in Odisha who appear for the JEE Main every year.
As per the directive by the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, NTA will prepare the question papers in Odia, Asamiya, Bangla, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
At present, the JEE Mains are held in English, Hindi and Gujarati.
Earlier, several states had urged the HRD ministry to prepare the JEE Main questions in their respective languages to help regional students.
Taking note of the use of Gujarati for the exams, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had urged the Centre to prepare the question papers in Bangla as well. Following this, the ministry decided to prepare the question papers in eight regional languages and allow the students to appear in these languages from 2020.
However, NTA pleaded that it had already prepared the question papers and fixed the schedule for JEE Main 2020 and so it will prepare the question papers in eight regional languages for the next examination in 2021.
It may be mentioned that NTA prepares the question papers in regional languages for students appearing for the all-India NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test).
