Since the day that National Testing Agency released its datesheet, thousands of medicine aspirants all around the country had been looking forward to March 27 - the day the NEET admit card was supposed to be released. However, when the NTA on Thursday announced the postponement in the release of its admit cards, most +2 students breathed a sigh of relief. Many assume that the entrance examination too will be postponed.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the HRD Ministry had postponed the CBSE Class XII examinations, which will now happen only after the April 14. In such a scenario, many believe that the postponement of examinations will certainly be a boon to the aspirants. "It will be a good decision if the government postpones the examination. The class XII students will surely need a breather after the board examinations and some time to attend a crash course if they wish to do so," says Kalyani Jayakrishnan, an aspirant.
Since the coaching institutes have closed down, Kalyani attends her institute's webinars every day and practices mock tests online. "I attend my NEET coaching at Aakash Institute Kozhikode. I attend my classes online these days. Since I dropped a year to prepare for the entrance examination, the date wouldn't really make much of a difference. However, this will be troublesome for a lot of my friends who are in class XII. Also, a lot of institutes do not offer webinars. So, the students will need some time to brush up everything that they learned previously," she says.
Aakash institute's National Academic Director Anurag Tiwari too voiced a similar concern. "I really hope that they postpone the examinations. Otherwise, it will be pretty difficult for a lot of XII graders," he says. "Also, it won't be possible for everyone to attend classes online, especially the students in the rural areas," he adds.
Muralidhar Ponnaluri, CEO, ERA Foundation, the organiser of a national-level mock NEET believes that the NTA will most likely postpone the examination date after it postponed the release date of admit cards. "I believe that NEET will be postponed since the Class XII exams are postponed. Now the students will have to concentrate on board examinations and entrance examinations will not usually happen in between," he says. "Usually, the board exams get over in March and entrance happens in May. But now, if the board exams will happen in May, NEET will be further postponed. This is the most unprecedented delay. there are chances that the courses will also start a couple of months late, but this won't make much of a difference," he adds.
