New Delhi: The Ministry of Education Friday decided not to postpone the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE)-Main and National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET).
In a press statement, the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts these exams, said: “… the examination is going to be held with due precaution and it is not going to be postponed.”
JEE-Main is scheduled to be held from 1-6 September, while NEET is scheduled on 13 September. Owing to the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the country, students have been demanding delaying the exam, which has already been postponed twice.
The NTA in its statement quoted the judgment of the Supreme Court — which Monday dismissed a plea seeking postponement of JEE-Main and NEET — while deciding to go ahead with the exams.
“We find that there is absolutely no justification in the prayer made for postponement of the examination in question relating to NEET UG-2020 as well as JEE (Main) April, 2020. In our opinion, though there is a pandemic situation, but ultimately life has to go and the career of the students cannot be put on peril for long and a full academic year cannot be wasted,” according to the statement.
Students to be given preference in choosing exam centres
The NTA, which functions under the Ministry of Education, said in its statement that 99.07 per cent of JEE-Main aspirants will be offered their preferred choice of exam centres, while the same will be applied to 99.87 per cent of NEET candidates.
“The NTA has also prepared a comprehensive advisory regarding Covid-19 for all functionaries for the (exam) centre management,” it added.
Earlier in the day, a Twitter campaign, #PostponeNEET_JEESept, had started trending, urging the ministry to postpone the exams in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
We are NOT going to break the chain.#ProtestAgainstExamInCOVID #PostponeNEET_JEESept
You know what we want @DrRPNishank @EduMinOfIndia @PMOIndia @Swamy39 https://t.co/rifh67zu26— Sindhuja Naidu (@naidu_sindhuja) August 21, 2020
#ProtestAgainstExamsInCOVID @Swamy39
Students are future of their nation…Health & safety of students is most important.
I request to HRD Minister @DrRPNishank and honourable PM @PMOIndia @narendramodi consider demand of us..#PostponeNEET_JEESept #postponeNEET_JEE pic.twitter.com/Mm7MZ8feVG
— Rohan Mishra (@Rk50762) August 21, 2020
Also read: JEE aspirants have to sign Covid undertaking to write tests as SC refuses to postpone exam