JEE Main - Advanced and NEET 2021: 5 Points that Mr. Pokhriyal completely missed talking about in his webinar

The Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had urged the students, parents and stakeholders to post their queries or concerns with hashtag #EducationMinisterGoesLive on Twitter. later, on December 10, he addressed all the queries and concerns. Here, his major talk points were the Boards and Competitive exams like JEE Main and NEET 2021.

During the interaction, the Union Minister announced major changes in the JEE Main including relaxation in pattern and holding four attempts of the engineering entrance exam. Talking about NEET 2021, he stated that NTA and EduMin will not postpone the medical entrance test. But there are certainly some points that he missed talking about.

CiOL talked to students and found that certain disparities remain. Here are 5 major points that students pointed out that EduMin needs to talk about promptly.

1. Online classes are not reliable

In response to the query invitation, a student on Twitter tweeted, “Life of every single student is at a stake due to the worldwide pandemic. We’re struggling a lot with the online classes and are not ready to perform the practicals too. Please postponed exams till June.” Further, students have asked to reduce the syllabus, or postpone the exams. A student said, “First JEE Main attempt should be in May and the second attempt in August; JEE Advanced in mid-September, Board exams in June. Please do this because our coaching centres and schools are closed. Online classes are not so effective we are just relying on self-study.”

2. Not a single mention of JEE Advanced

A Twitter account JEE Advanced last attempters said, “Jee Mains has 3 attempts and advanced, two attempts. The students who missed their last attempt in the pandemic, or could not perform well deserve another chance.” A student said, “After scoring 99 percentile in JEE Main 2020 January, I started the preparation for Advanced. But due to COVID-19, our coaching has been shut down from March. It left my preparation incomplete. I hope I get a chance to give such important life exam once more.”

The voices have turned from 100s to 1000s and Mr Pokhriyal did not talk about it either.

3. Regional languages

Although the Education Minister has stated that the ministry will consider regional languages for all competitive exams, IITs have strongly opposed the move. Many students are not fluent in English. They await official notification. Thus, the Education Minister needs to clear the issue ASAP.

4. The academic calendar

He talked about exams, but not the academic session. We quote a student: "How do these exams hold fruitful if we don't know when we begin our classes? This session is already haywire and online classes have us weak in academics. Hopefully, the next session begins as soon as possible. I also hope that Pokhriyal Ji announced the academic calendar.

5. What is the situation for students in colleges post these competitive exams?

JEE Main, Advanced and NEET 2020 might have been successful, but students have not had proper studies for Semester 1 and 2. A student said, "They have not yet completed the whole syllabus of the first year as they have started too late near about October November. So if these students go in 2nd year and make it empty for the first-year student, then only the new batch would go and join the next year college. Further, it is not at all convenient to reduce the syllabus of the first-year student. So, where would the class 12 student go if you hold the exam too early? How will the students start their colleges?"

All of the above are genuine concerns that Mr Pokhriyal has missed talking about. From the PoV of a student, their stress is justified. In good news, though, Ramesh Pokhriyal Ji will go live for teachers in a webinar on December 17. We expect him to talk about CBSE Class 10, 12 Board exams and he may make some announcement regarding the dates of the exams. Yet, the impending loom of career deciding competitive exams also needs to be urgently addressed.