Heeding to the demands of lakhs of students, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Friday postponed JEE Main, JEE Advanced and NEET examinations as the coronavirus cases in the country continued unabated. Announcing the decision on Twitter, the minister also declared new dates for the three examinations. The decision came after a committee including NTA DG and other experts reviewed the situation and submitted recommendations to the minister. Lakhs of students and parents relentlessly requested the government to postpone the key entrance examinations in view of the coronavirus crisis. Earlier today, during a virtual rally, Nishank confirmed that the dates for NEET and JEE examinations would be pushed further. He, however, asked students to wait for a few hours for an official announcement. Late evening, Nishank tweeted a video and made the new dates public.
NEW DATES FOR JEE MAIN, JEE ADVANCED AND NEET EXAMS
| JEE MAIN |
September 1-September 6 |
| JEE ADVANCED |
September 27 |
| NEET |
September 13 |
"Keeping in mind safety of students and to ensure quality education we have decided to postpone JEE & NEET examinations. JEE Main examination will be held between 1st-6th September, JEE advanced exam will be held on 27th September & NEET examination will be held on 13th September," the minister said in a tweet.
Last week, the India Wide Parents' Association wrote to the HRD minister and expressed concerns over holding of the examinations as COVID-19 cases soared. It listed out a number of reasons stating why the exams should be postponed. These included increasing COVID-19 infections in India, students acting as carriers of the virus, students coming from containment zones and more.
Moreover, the chorus grew when the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) cancelled Class 10 and Class 12 Board exams slated between July 1-15.
Earlier, the JEE Main exam was scheduled to take place between July 19 and July 23 while the NEET exam was decided to be held on July 26. JEE Main provides admission to NITs, IITs, and CFTIs while the NEET-UG examination is for admission to MBBS/BDS courses. More than 15 lakh students had applied for NEET 2020 while nearly 9 lakh for JEE Main exams.
The decision, that comes as a relief for students, evoked positive and infact, funny responses on Twitter. Have a look at some of them:
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