New Delhi: Students preparing for the Joint Engineering Entrance (JEE) exam and National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) this year can expect some clarity on the exam dates by this week.
Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, the Human Resource Development Minister, is likely to announce dates for both the entrance exams Tuesday during his live interaction with students, Umakant Tripathi, the minister’s media advisor told ThePrint.
The dates had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Pokhriyal is scheduled to address students through a live session, during which he is expected to field their questions on the college session and entrance examinations.
A source in the ministry said, the JEE and NEET exams are likely to take place towards the end of June.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), which is the nodal agency for conducting entrance exams, had earlier considered conducting the exam towards the end of May. However, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi extending the nationwide lockdown to 17 May, the idea was scrapped.
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More than 15 lakh students across the country have registered for NEET this year, which is the gateway to medical colleges in India, whereas more than 9 lakh have registered for JEE Mains, the entrance exam for all other engineering colleges except IITs.
Students needs to clear the JEE Advanced exam for admission to IITs, which takes place after JEE Mains. With the delay in JEE Mains, exam date for Advanced has also been postponed.
The HRD minister’s live interaction with students is aimed at addressing some of the fear among students given the circumstance. This will be the second live interaction that the minister will hold after his earlier one with parents of students.
During the interaction, most parents were concerned about dates of pending board exams and entrance exams. However, the minister did not give a definite answer and asked them to wait for the lockdown to be lifted.
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