For the first time, the national-level Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main is being held in 13 languages and over 45,000 candidates have registered to write the first session of JEE Main 2021 in a language other than English. The first session began with the papers for BArch and BPlanning applicants on February 23 and will continue for BTech candidates till February 26. According to the exam-conducting body, National Testing Agency (NTA), the February session of JEE Main 2021 has 6,61,776 registered candidates, for all papers taken together.
Of them, 45,360 have opted to write the entrance exam for Architecture, Planning or Engineering programmes -- BArch, BPlanning or BTech -- in a language other than English.
However, the registrations with English as the selected medium are still in the majority, numbering over 6 lakh.
JEE Main 2021: English, Hindi, Other Languages
The languages added to English and Hindi in JEE Main 2021 are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Of these, exams in Hindi, English and Urdu will be held across the country and exams in the rest will be conducted only in the regions where these languages are used. For example, JEE Main 2021 question paper will be available in Bengali for JEE Main 2021 exam centres in West Bengal, Tripura and Andaman and Nicobar Islands; and in Tamil for Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Of the 6,52,627 registrations for the BTech paper of JEE Main 2021, 42,738 have opted to write the exam in a language other than English. This includes 22,758 candidates who have opted for Hindi and 19,980 for the other 11 languages.
For BArch and BPlanning, 2,622 candidates had registered to write the exam in a regional language, including 993 for Hindi and 1,629 for other languages.
To decide the correctness of questions, “the English version will be taken as final”, says the NTA JEE Main 2021 bulletin.
The BTech exam of JEE Main 2021 is being conducted at 828 centres and the BArch and BPlanning one was conducted at 437.
