Tomorrow, West Bengal on test as 92,000 students write first physical exam after second wave

KOLKATA: West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE), to be held on Saturday, will be the first physical public exam in the state ever since the second wave of the pandemic struck.
More than 92,000 candidates will appear for the tests—scheduled in two halves—at 274 centres. Several safety measures are being implemented to ensure no candidate or invigilator contracts the novel coronavirus. Candidates have to reach the exam centres half-an-hour before the beginning of the tests and their temperature will be checked with thermal guns before they are allowed entry. If any examinee is found to run a temperature, he or she will be asked to sit for the tests in a separate room. All candidates have to carry their own water bottles. Candidates will not be allowed to leave exam centres before the entire exam gets over.

WBJEE teams have already inspected the centres to check whether they had spacious halls and classrooms or not to allow the candidates to sit apart. In classrooms that can accommodate 50 students, 20-25 candidates will sit.
The number of exam centres has been increased as the numbers of candidates allowed at some of the centres has been halved. Jadavpur University will host 200 candidates, against the earlier count of 500-plus. Jadavpur Vidyapith School, one of the largest centres, will have 450 candidates.
The first phase of sanitisation of the centres has been completed, and another round will be carried out on the eve of the tests. “We are ready for the exam that will be held in multiple rooms that have been sanitised. We are following all safety measures,” said Jadavpur University VC Suranjan Das. Principal of Jadavpur Vidyapith Parimal Bhattacharya himself inspected the sanitisation process on Thursday and will repeat it on Friday.
Candidates were happy that the WBJEE Board has requested the state transport department to run special buses for them. “Otherwise I would have had to book an auto from my home to the Barrackpore centre,” said Ritam Dey, a student at St Augustine’s Shyamnagar. Abhishek Basu, a student at DPS Ruby Park, will travel from Bhowanipore to JU by the family car. “Many of us who are sharing our vehicles with our friends. Many are sharing hired cars,” he said.
STUs, like West Bengal State Transport Corporation, South Bengal State Transport Corporation and North Bengal State Transport Corporation, will run special bus services to ferry JEE candidates. The services will be available from 8am till 8pm. “In the absence of suburban trains, students will be dependent on buses. So we will run a substantial number of buses to meet the demand. The number of buses will be increased or decreased depending on the demands. A full-scale control room will operate,” said a transport department officer. Even private bus operators will run some buses. “We will try to ply some buses to ferry examinees. We have got in touch with police and JEE Board for exam centre locations,” said Titu Saha of City Suburban Bus Service.