Two students, who came from Bihar to write the state joint entrance examination here, reached the test centre at Jadavpur University on Saturday morning.
They failed to realise that they were supposed to go to JU’s Salt Lake campus, which is about 14km away from the main campus in Jadavpur.
While one of them who came well in advance managed to reach the designated centre after being alerted by the staff at the main campus in Jadavpur, the other one, who came late could not.
The two-hour long first paper mathematics started at 11am.
JU registrar Snehamanju Basu said they allowed the student to write the exam on the main campus so that he did not miss the exams.
“We had to make provisions. Or else he would miss the test. The board was informed about this,” said Basu.
She said altogether 275 candidates wrote the tests held in two halves (second paper- physics and chemistry — from 2 to 4pm) and the candidate from Bihar was one of them.
Malayendu Saha, the chairman of the JEE board, said: “We also try to help students in distress. In this
case, an exception was made and the student was allowed to write the test at JU’s main campus.”
Rajib Bandyopadhyay, the centre in-charge of the university’s Salt Lake campus, said the candidates from outside Bengal were allotted exam centres on the Salt Lake campus.
But for such minor glitches, the exam went off smoothly. Around over 80,000 examinees wrote the pen-and-paper test at 277 centres in Bengal.
Last year, 70,000 candidates had written the tests.
A little over 1 lakh candidates applied for writing the tests which was pushed back from April 23 to April 30 because the dates of Bengal higher secondary exams were deferred following the by-elections in Asansol and Ballygunge on April 12.
Sources in the board said, the turnout was high compared to last year when the tests were conducted on July 17 amid the second wave.
“Now we have no Covid induced travel restrictions following a dip in cases. This led to improved turn out,” said a JEE board official.
The results are expected to be published between the end of May and early June.
“The dates would be announced later,” said JEE board chairman Saha.
School education department restructures expert committee
The school education department has restructured the expert committee on school education. The committee was first constituted when Mamata Banerjee had come to power in May 2011. Teachers from schools, colleges, and state-aided universities have been made its members.
Each subject group —physics, chemistry, English, Bengali, geography, mathematics, biology, history, physical education — will have mentors who will assist the members.
The committee has been constituted for one-year or until further order, said an official of the department. Anupam Basu, director, NIT Durgapur, Rajib Chowdhury, a teacher of St Xavier’s College, Park Street, are among the eight mentors.