This year’s Bengal JEE examinations are likely to be delayed because the schedule will depend on the Assembly election dates.

The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) board usually holds the entrance test in April for admission to BTech programmes across the state.

A JEE board official said the dates for the exams to fill 34,000 BTech seats will be announced after the Election Commission draws the poll schedule.

“Educational institutions where the JEE are held will be requisitioned for the elections. We have yet to announce the dates. We are waiting for the poll schedule,” the official said.

The board usually asks BTech programme aspirants to submit online applications between January and early February following the publication of an advertisement in December.

No such exercise has been carried out this time.

This year, the higher secondary council conducted its board examinations in February, a month before usual, because of the Assembly polls.

The state secondary education board, too, brought forward its schedule so the Plus II exams could be conducted by February.

The JEE board, however, took no such step.

“We have not had any chairperson on the board over the past two months. Any decision to change the schedule has to be made by the chairperson,” said one official.

In the absence of a chairperson, the board is now being run by the registrar.

In 2021, when the last Assembly elections were held, the Bengal JEE were held in July. “That year, the examination could not be held in April because Covid cases were being reported in high numbers. After the situation improved relatively, the test was held on July 17,” said a JEE board official.

A JU professor said the JEE board should have brought the exam forward as the HS council did, considering everybody knew that the Assembly
elections were scheduled this year.

“A late exam affects the entire academic calendar,” the professor said.

Last year, BTech classes in Bengal started in October, two months after the usual schedule as court cases over OBC reservations delayed the publication of results.

When contacted by this newspaper, JEE board registrar Dibyendu Kar declined to comment.

An official said: “We are in touch with the education department. The board is likely to announce the dates by the end of February or early March.”