NEET 2021: Putting an end to speculations, NTA to announce single exam date in a week

According to a report by NDTV, NTA DG Vineet Joshi has stated that the Agency has decided not to provide an additional attempt at NEET 2021 to students. Further, NTA will announce the exam dates very shortly, Mr Joshi said. Earlier according to an IndiaTV report, Joshi had hinted at the announcement of the exam date by February-end or early-March. He explained that a total of 28 boards, two ministries, and NTA were brainstorming the process. This had been causing a delay in the declaration of the exam date and the process has become time-consuming.

In early February, Education Minister, Mr Ramesh Pokhriyal had hinted at the twice conduct of NEET 2021 in an interview with Times Now. After that, there were only speculations and no solid information for students. The uncertainty stood a pressing issue because NEET 2021 exam is the only way for India students to take admission in UG medical programmes, including MBBS and BDS, students have been waiting for the dates for a very long time. The speculations for online conduct, two times this year, was a plausible idea until last month.

We even suggested the same last month.

What we had said:

One thing that we need to note, is, that CBSE and other state boards will conduct the 12th Board exams in May-June. Thus, it is highly unlikely that NEET 2021 will happen before July. But, in case the offices look to conduct NEET in July, that will only leave August-September for the second NEET exam. Especially if the exam happens in offline mode, the time between two exams will not favour students. Further, many teachers and professors have opined that NEET 2021 should happen online as many students have received online classes. Experts, too, opine that online would ensure quicker results; thus, helping NTA to conduct the examination more than once.

Last year, the exam was held on September 13 after being postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 7,71,500 candidates had qualified for the exam, for which over 13.66 lakh appeared. The test was offered in eleven languages i.e. English, Urdu, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, and Telugu.