The CBSE  today (December 29) extended
the date of online submission of application for JEE (Main-2016) till January 11, 2016 from December
31, 2015.

JEE
is the gateway to a majority of engineering colleges in India. The examination
is conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).  JEE is
conducted for admission in various engineering colleges including IITs, NITs,
IIITs and other state colleges.

However,
some believe that the extension of date for submission of application for JEE
was not required. PaGaLGuY spoke to Kailash Kalra of Amar stationers, Kota,who helps students in filling up JEE forms online. He
said, “I think the extension will not 
make a difference. Last year when
the CBSE extended the last date, then too, I
remember only four students came.” He  added, “So, this extension might not help but now students
will get careless. Those who were planning to fill till December 31, 2105 can
now wait until January 11, 2016.”

PaGaLGuY
also spoke to Nalin Sharma, an IIT aspirant, studying in Kota. He said,
“None of my friends waited till December
31. In fact, we filled our forms in the first
week of December. All the IIT aspirants were aware of the last date. The December
31 deadline was set from last two-three
months.”

Students
who wanted to fill the JEE 2016 applications have already done it. Another stationer like Mr Kalra; Love Chaturvedi of Hemant Mobile
Shop,  Kota, said, “Nobody waits till the last. Today also only one
student came.  And last year no students came to fill the application after
the last date was extended by the CBSE.”

Whereas
this situation can be looked from another angle. Sundeep Gupta of M-Learning,
Indore, said, “The CBSE has extended the date to meet with the number of
applicants in 2014. They did the same for JEE 2015. The number of JEE applicants
in 2015 before the extension were around 7.5 lakh and after the last date it
was over 12 lakhs. Though they were still short of 50 thousand
applicants when compared to the 2014 statistics.”

There
are several students who are still not aware of the fact that they have to clear
JEE to get admission in an engineering college. Last year after extending the
deadline, the CBSE advertised about it all over the
country. They printed articles in newspapers, played jingles on FM, and news
channels. Prof Gupta continued, “The prominent reason behind the extension
could be to meet the 2015 statistics.”

The increase in number
of JEE applicants for 2016 will increase the competition for IIT
aspirants.  Sharma currently preparing for his class 12 boards and JEE
further added, “Competition is increasing every second. What if the reason
behind the JEE applicants between 2014 and 2105 is the fading interest in
Engineering?”

The total number of
JEE applicants will only be known once all the applications have been
submitted. The date of online submission of application form of JEE (Main) –
2016 and uploading of images has been extended up to 11.01.2016. The fee
may be paid by the candidates through credit/debit card up to 12.01.2016 and
through e-challan up to 12.01.2016 (up to working hours of the
banks). The JEE Main offline examination will be conducted on April 3, 2016 and online examination will be conducted on April 9 & 10, 2016.