JEE Main and NEET 2020 likely to be postponed after the meeting with NTA today

The medical entrance exam NEET and engineering entrance exam JEE Main dates may change again amid increasing cases of Coronavirus. Union Human Resource Development Ministry formed a committee for revising conducting JEE Main and NEET dates. The committee will present its recommendations today. NEET exam is to be held on 26 July and JEE exam on 18-23 July. Due to increasing cases of corona infection in the country, there has been a continuous demand from students and parents to postpone the examination.

States including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have extended the lockdown to 31 July. In such a situation the chances of postponing the examination have increased considerably. The committee may suggest conducting NEET and JEE Mains in August. A source tells us that the exams, though, will happen before August 15.

Earlier, Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had said on Thursday that a committee has been constituted to review the status of conducting the NEET-JEE entrance exam. Nishank tweeted on Thursday and said, he has made a committee of National Testing Agency (NTA) officials and other experts to review the situation to look into the current situation and request from students and parents to sit for JEE Main and NEET exams. The committee will submit its recommendation by Friday (today).

Problems from students

Last week, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) cancelled all the pending board examinations. It was to conduct these from July 1 to 15. In states like Maharashtra, Nagaland, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, the lockdown has increased till 31 July. Students from all these states have intensified the demand to postpone the engineering entrance exam JEE Main and the Medical Entrance Examination NEET.

Apart from this, the Central Government has also released the guidelines of Unlock 2. It is applicable from July 1. Accordingly, until July 31, metros will remain closed and the stringency in the containment zones will increase further. Now, here a question arises. If a student stays in a Containment Zone, how will he reach the examination centre?

After CBSE 10th and 12th exam cancellations, students are tweeting the hashtags #PostponeNEETandJEE #NEET #HealthOverExam.  Students are also tagging HRD Ministry, PMO, NTA in their tweets. So, NTA and MHRD should not delay the motif further than today.