Centre: JEE Main, NEET UG to be conducted in September as scheduled – Times of India ►

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Friday said that the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (undergraduate) will be conducted on September 1-6 and September 13, 2020 respectively as scheduled. Following the Supreme Court’s order on Monday, the National Testing Agency (NTA) released the admit cards for the JEE (main) and as on Friday, 6,49,223 aspirants have downloaded theirs.

The SC in its order said, “We find that there is absolutely no justification in the prayer made for postponement of the examination in question relating to NEET UG-2020 as well as JEE (main) April, 2020. In our opinion, though there is a pandemic situation, ultimately life has to go and the career of the students cannot be put on peril for long and a full academic year cannot be wasted.”

Amit Khare, secretary, higher education, ministry of education said: “The exams will not be postponed. The Supreme Court said that a year cannot be wasted. And the order will be complied. Moreover, we have parents and candidates, lakhs of them on the other side who are writing to us to conduct the exam as scheduled as any further delay will seriously demoralise the aspirants.

Dismissing the plea for postponement of JEE (Main) and NEET examinations, the SC said that any further delay in conducting the tests would result in waste of “precious year” for the students. The JEE (main) and NEET-UG were deferred earlier due to the pandemic. The petitioners pleaded that the examinations be deferred till normalcy is restored as the virus is spreading and thousands are getting infected every day. A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said that even the courts are functioning during the pandemic and the examinations could also be conducted with proper safeguards in place.

The NTA has also prepared the standard operating procedures (SOP) for the two tests due to COVID-19 outbreak for conduct of the exams and elaborate arrangements have been made to sanitise the centres before and after the conduct of the examinations, give fresh masks and (on demand) hand gloves based on the comprehensive guidelines.

NTA has also provided the option to change their centre cities five times. According to NTA, out of the total 8.58 lakh candidates, 99.07% candidates have been given the first choice of their preference. So far, 120 candidates have requested for a change in centre cities allotted to them.

Similarly, in NEET (UG) Out of the total of 15,97,433 candidates, 99.87 % candidates are being given the first choice of their preferences of the city. The admit cards are scheduled to be released shortly.