The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union has written to the National Testing Agency (NTA), JNU administration and the Ministry of Education requesting them to postpone the dates for JNU entrance exam as it's clashing with UGC NET and various other final semester examinations across varsities in the country. The NTA announced it will conduct the JNU entrance exam 2020 from October 5-8, 2020, while certain subject exams for NET are to be conducted on October 1, 7, 9, 17, 21 and so on.
JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh tells us how it will be difficult for numerous students across the country. "Several universities have postponed their exams to October as they were not held due to the pandemic and these semester exams have been pending for quite some time now. Students have to sit for their final semester exams, there's no way they can avoid that. With the UGC NET exams clashing, students will now have to choose between the two, which is unfair. They need to sit for their final year exams in order to earn their degrees. The other thing is, UGC NET also provides a research scholarship, so for the students who want to get into higher education, both entrances and NET are equally important. These situations are reducing the opportunities for students in their future endeavours. That's why we have written to the NTA, JNU Administration, Ministry of Education stating that the exam should take place with one-month prior notice. You cannot tell a student suddenly to travel to a different city on the next day of announcing the dates, it's an extremely hurried and irresponsible way of dealing with this amid a pandemic. Numerous students have opted for NET centres in their hometowns while the JNU entrance might be in Delhi and they haven't got a chance to modify that. How will they travel within a day's notice? These are the issues we have highlighted," she says.
In their letter to the NTA, the JNUSU has highlighted three issues that would crop up due to the clashing of the examinations. "The dates have been announced just 15 days prior to the actual test. While the pandemic rages on and the transportation facilities are uncertain, this period is insufficient for students to plan their travel. Also, the opportunity must be granted to students to change their centres before the announcement of the schedule," it states.
The NTA recently announced the revised exam dates of UGC NET 2020 exams and now they are scheduled to be held on September 24, 25, 29 and 30, October 1, 7, 9, 17, 21, 22, 23 and November 10, 2020. They were earlier scheduled to be conducted from September 16, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
