Entrance exams only after the lockdown ends: HRD Ministry

The entrance exams to different technical education courses will be held only when the lockdown ends, the Human Resource Development Ministry said on Monday.

No dates for conducting entrance tests for different courses for medical, engineering, management and other streams have yet been announced. Even the exams conducted by the Union Public Services Commission have not been held due to the nationwide lockdown.

HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said on Monday that exams like Joint Entrance Examination and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test and management courses will be held only when the situation normalises.

Pointing out that the entrance exams for technical courses have only been postponed, the Minister appealed to the students not to panic in the given situation but rather utilise the time they have gained due to the lockdown to prepare well for the coming exams. He pointed out that study material had been made available online for the benefit of students across the country.

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has announced that it will undertake periodic review of the dates for the possible conduct of UPSC exams, which require candidates to travel across the country during normal times, keeping in mind the social distancing and other norms.

Combined Higher Secondary Level Examination (Tier I) 2019, Junior Engineers (Paper I) Examination 2019, Stenographer Grade C and D Examination 2019, and Combined Higher Secondary Level Examination 2018 skill testing will be conducted once the lockdown ends on May 3, 2020.

The conduct of all examinations across the country were stopped after the nationwide lockdown was imposed from March 24 midnight.

The HRD Ministry has said that the candidates would be intimated 10 days in advance before the conduct of the remaining board examinations of Class X and XII.