HRD Ministry forms panel to review situation for conducting NEET, JEE entrance exam

NEW DELHI: Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Thursday said that his Ministry has formed a panel to review the COVID-19 situation across the country for conducting the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) at the earliest.

Due to the health risk, educational activities and major entrance examinations have been pushed to either a later date or the dates are yet to be announced. 

The HRD Minister has also asked the National Testing Agency & other experts to submit a review report by Friday.

‘Looking at the prevailing circumstances & requests received from students & parents appearing for #JEE & #NEET examinations, a committee consisting of @DG_NTA & other experts has been advised to review the situation & submit its recommendations to @HRDMinistry latest by tomorrow,’ the HRD Minister said in a tweet.

Looking at the prevailing circumstances & requests received from students & parents appearing for #JEE & #NEET examinations, a committee consisting of @DG_NTA & other experts has been advised to review the situation & submit its recommendations to @HRDMinistry latest by tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/xByKLUqAIc

— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) July 2, 2020

The Union Minister said in a video message, shared through his official Twitter account, that they are looking into the ground situation. “I have been getting a lot of requests from NEET and JEE aspirants over email and on my social media asking the ministry to postpone the exams,” he said.

NEET is a medical entrance exam that was to be conducted on July 26 while JEE - an engineering entrance exam - was to be conducted from 18-23 July. Tens of thousands of students take the tests that the National Testing Agency conducts.

Parents have raised concerns over the increasing pressure on the students, without any solid statement by the authorities. A group of parents has also written to National Testing Agency (NTA) urging them to conduct exams as per schedule. In the letter, parents have urged the NTA to conduct the exams as per schedule as the students have been preparing for over two years for the entrance exams.

After the cancellation of the CBSE examinations of the 10th and 12 standards, the Union Human Resource Development authorities have urged the NTA to re-look into the academic calendar of JEE and NEET.

As per the latest data, there have been a total of 6, 04,641 Covid-19 cases in the country out of which 2, 26,947 are currently active. More than 9 million samples have so far been tested for coronavirus.