NEET-UG, JEE (Main) exams likely to be delayed due to Covid

NEET-UG, JEE (Main) exams likely to be delayed due to Covid

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  23.06.2020

Under pressure from students demanding a postponement of the NEET UG and JEE (Main) exams, the government is deliberating pushing back the dates for the key medical and engineering entrance tests due to the prevailing pandemic situation. The HRD ministry in consultation with the ministry of health and family welfare (for NEET-UG) is likely to announce a postponement after the Supreme Court’s hearing on Tuesday on the Centre’s reply to a petition filed by some parents seeking cancellation of pending Class XII CBSE examinations.

As the dates for the NEET-UG and JEE (Main) drew closer, the chorus on social media for postponing the exams got louder with hashtags like #HealthOver-NeetJEE and #Studentslivesmatter. Thousands of students have written to the National Testing Agency, the body which conducts the entrance exams, demanding the same. In fact, every tweet of Ramesh Pokhriyal, Union minister for HRD, has been responded with thousands of JEE (Main) and NEET-UG aspirants asking him to delay the exams further. JEE (Main) has been scheduled for July 18-23 and NEET-UG is supposed to be held on July 26. Even a tweet “Jay Jagannath Ji” from Pokriyal was responded by hundreds of anxious aspirants with hashtags such as #NoExamsInCovid, #postponejee, #HealthOverNeet-JEE and #Studentslivesmatter.

 According to HRD sources, the ministry is waiting for Tuesday’s SC hearing before taking a call on the matter.

Full report on www.toi-.in

SAFETY FIRST: Every tweet of Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal has been responded with thousands of JEE (Main) and NEET-UG aspirants asking him to delay the exams further