A Twitter campaign by thousands of students has swivelled the spotlight on technical glitches impairing the National Testing Agency’s conduct of the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) at a time the government’s exam agency is facing criticism for a snagged entrance test to central universities.

Many students who appeared in the JEE Main in June and July have complained that the computers provided at the exam centres had acted up.

The complaint echoes the problem that dogged the maiden CUET-undergraduate, held by the NTA from July 15 to August 30 amid frequent deferments that delayed admissions.

After the JEE Main, many aspiring engineering students moved the Supreme Court and an unspecified number were given a second opportunity by the NTA.

Engineering colleges other than the IITs admit students through the JEE Main.

But many like Ishika Gajbhiye did not get a second chance. Many students had used up the three attempts candidates are allowed, with the pandemic affecting their preparations for the first two and the technical glitches hurting them in the third.

Ishika, a Dalit student from Nagpur who passed her Class XII boards in 2020, took the JEE Main the same year. But she could not prepare well because she was unable to access study materials and guidance from teachers owing to the pandemic restrictions. Her rank was not good enough to secure her a seat in computer engineering at an NIT.

The story repeated itself in 2021 as the second Covid wave played havoc. JEE Main 2022 was Ishika’s last chance, which she took in June and again in July. Students get two shots at the JEE Main every year and the better score is taken into consideration.

“Both times, I faced difficulties during the test. During the June test, the computer screen went blank again and again. The uploading of papers on the screen was slow. Then the electricity went off. When I logged in again, the problem persisted. I lost a lot of time accessing the questions,” Ishika told The Telegraph.

During the July exam, Ishika said the answers to many questions failed to get registered despite her clicking on the answer box. Ishika and many other students have written to the NTA about the problem.

Some students approached the Supreme Court, which directed the NTA to give a fresh opportunity to 15 petitioners. The NTA allowed an unspecified number of students to take the exam again after scrutinising their grievances and considering inputs from the exam centres. But Ishika and thousands of other students were not called up for the fresh round of exam.

Many of these students had passed Class XII in 2020 and exhausted their three attempts.

These students have launched a Twitter campaign and are holding candlelight marches and protests in various cities demanding a chance to appear in the JEE Main in 2023. This year’s admissions at the NITs are over.

“We can only plead for another chance. What else can we do? We are only asking for a fair chance,” said Aniket, a student from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh.

He said many of his friends whose exam centres were in private engineering colleges had encountered glitches.

Ravi Kumar from Gaya said the screen of the computer he was allotted kept zooming in and out on its own during the June exam. In the July exam, many of his answers did not get registered.

Some academics believe that the NTA has bitten off more than it can chew. An academic who did not wish to be identified said: “The NTA is overburdened with so many exams. It seems that it is unable to administer the tests with proper care.”

The NTA conducts the JEE Main, CUET, NET, NEET and several other exams.

Statistician and former director of the Chennai Mathematical Institute, Rajeeva Karandikar, said the NTA needed to impose stringent penalties on test centres for glitches. He said the contract should have detailed instructions on how to deal with technical problems.

“There are instances of computers not switching on, question papers not being displayed on screen. Can’t all the computers be tested (beforehand) with dummy question papers to ensure that they are functional?” Karandikar said.

“There should be an additional 10 to 20 per cent nodes (computers) at every centre to meet any exigency. This can be done if the penalty provisions are stringent.”

An NTA source said: “The grievances against the JEE Main stand closed. Students had gone to the Supreme Court. After that, a fresh opportunity was given to certain students on merit. There is no further consideration.”