JEE Main will be conducted in more regional languages from 2021, says Ramesh Pokhriyal

The Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, announced that the Joint Admission Board (JAB) will be conducting the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Main in more regional languages of the country from next year. As per the announcement made earlier today,  the new plans are in line with the stress given on the promotion of the mother tongue/ regional languages in school education in the new National Education Policy 2020. In a series of tweets, Pokhriyal said that in the upcoming years, candidates will be able to appear for the JEE Main in more regional languages. https://twitter.com/DrRPNishank/status/1319218818888069122?s=20 He did not mention the number of additional language options that are going to be included or the names. But the minister mentioned that these new languages will be available to students while seeking entry into State Engineering Colleges that conduct an entrance exam in regional language. “State language of States who admit students based on the #JEE(Main) will also be included under this,” he wrote further. https://twitter.com/DrRPNishank/status/1319218820867739650?s=20 Pokhriyal pointed out that the move will prove to be beneficial as it has “far-reaching implications”. He added that providing mother tongue as a language choice in the engineering entrance exams will help students understand and hence answer questions better. He wrote, “..as Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi ji has pointed out that top-scoring countries in PISA examination use [their] mother tongue as a medium of instruction. The decision of JAB will help students comprehend questions better & score higher”. https://twitter.com/DrRPNishank/status/1319218823065604096?s=20 At present, National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts the JEE Main in English, Hindi and Gujarati. The National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) is the only national level entrance test that is conducted in regional languages. NEET is held in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu as well as Urdu languages.