Amid coronavirus outbreak, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on Friday announced the decision to postpone the JEE Main and NEET 2020 examinations. The JEE examination will now be held between September 1 to 6, JEE advanced exam will be held on September 27 and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) examination will be held on September 13.
“Keeping in mind the safety of students and to ensure quality education we have decided to postpone #JEE & #NEET examinations. JEE Main examination will be held between 1st-6th Sept, JEE advanced exam will be held on 27th Sept & NEET examination will be held on 13th September,” the HRD Minister announced on Twitter.
With this now it means that the results and counselling excercise and admission to the institutions will be completed by October end and Ministry sources a couple of education stakeholders told The Pioneer that session to the new session in higher education or technical institutes will begin only from November first week.
A panel constituted by Union HRD Minister, has recommended to postpone the medical entrance examination and engineering entrance examination in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. HRD ministry had formed a panel to check the feasibility to conduct the examinations in July after parents and students expressed concerns about JEE and NEET examinations in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
Looking at the prevailing circumstances and requests received from students & parents appearing for JEE and NEEET examinations the committee consisting of officials from the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other experts was advised to review the situation and submit its recommendations latest Friday.
While medical entrance exam — NEET — was scheduled to held on July 26, the JEE (Mains), for admission in engineering colleges, was scheduled from July 18-23.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had last week cancelled some board exam papers scheduled from July 1 to 15. The move came after group of parents moved the Supreme Court raising concerns about Covid-19 exposure risk to students.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has created a challenge as far as conducting exams is concerned and in India, the scale is huge. Therefore, for the future, NTA is looking at building capacity for holding online exams, which candidates can take from their homes,” a HRD Ministry official said.
Students have been signing online petitions and pursuing Twitter campaigns, and requesting the Government to postpone the engineering and medical entrance exams as well. Parents of nearly 4,000 NRI students based in West Asia also filed a petition in the Supreme Court Wednesday demanding the NEET be postponement. They noted that there are no exam centres outside India and international travel is still restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic.