JEE-Mains exam to be held between September 1 to 6, JEE-Advanced on September 27 and NEET on September 13: HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’

NEW DELHI: Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Friday evening informed that the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE-Mains) will be conducted from September 1 to 6.

The Minister, however, said that the JEE-Advanced examination has been postponed to September 27 in view of the COVID-19 situation in the country.

“Keeping in mind the safety of students and to ensure quality education, we've decided to postpone JEE and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) examinations. JEE Main exam will be held between 1st-6th Sept, JEE advanced exam will be held on 27th Sept and NEET exam will be held on 13th September,” the Union HRD Minister said in a tweet.

Keeping in mind the 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 Sept, JEE advanced exam will be held on 27th Sept & NEET examination will be held on 13th Sept. pic.twitter.com/klTjtBxvuw

— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) July 3, 2020

Pokhriyal had on Thursday constituted a panel to review the COVID-19 situation across the country for conducting the NEET and JEE examinations at the earliest.

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

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.

It may be noted that due to the health risk, educational activities and all major entrance examinations had been pushed to either a later date or the dates are yet to be announced. 

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.