Fresh requests to postpone the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) have been pouring in from hundreds of aspirants and their parents with an exponential increase in COVID cases across the country and instances of lack of social distancing at other entrance exams. They have taken to Twitter and #postponeNEETandJEE has been trending every other day. But on August 15, aspirants began a tweet storm and managed to tweet using the hashtag over a million times in a single day.
After being postponed, NEET is now scheduled for September 13 while JEE is scheduled to be held on September 1 to 6.
A Supreme Court hearing is scheduled for August 17 to hear the petitions of several students who want the exams to be postponed to December. While some claim they are unwilling to risk their lives for the examination, others said that their mental health has been affected by the pandemic and will be unable to perform their best if the exams are held immediately. This has only been amplified by visuals and reports of recently conducted state-level entrance examinations where social distancing norms were flouted and students tested COVID positive after appearing for them.
However, a small group of parents have also filed fresh petitions. Representing them, Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava has said that he will be representing the four petitioners at the Supreme Court hearing.
Recently, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said in an interview with The New Indian Express that the NEET and JEE exams will not be postponed any further. "The JEE MAINS were supposed to be conducted from July 19 to 23 which has been rescheduled to September 6. JEE Advanced was scheduled for August 23 which will now be conducted on September 27. NEET has also been deferred from July 26 to September 13. These are all important exams and we are supporting the students in these times," saidf Pokhriyal. "The NTA app helps to bring the coaching centres home. Lakhs of students have used the mock tests as well. We are with the students and their safety and education are our priority. We have taken the decisions after consulting with the health ministry and other concerned departments," he further stated.
Speaking about the need for conducting examinations, Pokhriyal added, "The UGC decided to make final year assessments compulsory so that no one has to face any problem with mass promotion. A COVID promoted tag will not help the students."
Finally, for the first time, at the stroke of midnight hour, we have achieved one Million mark for #postponeNEETandJEE
This is all because of your support and genuineness of the demand.#ihoik for you ❤️ Happy independence day
