Uncertainty over JEE, NEET exams frustrate students

Aspirants ask MHRD to clear air on exams scheduled this month

A decision on the fate of national exams JEE Main and NEET will be taken soon after an expert committee of NTA and other authorities submit their recommendations based on the prevailing situation, said the Union human resource development (HRD) minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, while addressing students via an online message. The report is likely to be submitted on July 3.

Even as governments, both Central and state, across the country are postponing or cancelling terminal examinations and entrance tests in view of Covid-19 numbers spiking, uncertainty on conducting of the JEE Main and NEET 2020 continues.

Aspirants of the prestigious national examinations have been demanding that the MHRD clear the air on the exams, scheduled for July. The students are frustrated over the silence by the authorities and are demanding postponement of exams owing to the serious health risks due to the rapidly increasing virus spread.

“The announcement by the HRD minister has given us some hope. Earlier, the MHRD was totally unresponsive. We sent them emails, letters, tweets etc. But we didn’t get any response whatsoever,” said a JEE aspirant from Hyderabad who wished to remain anonymous.

A NEET aspirant also from Hyderabad, Sanjana Kokkonda, expressed concern saying, “The city is a hotspot with cases increasing every day. Since JEE AND NEET are national exams, there will be mass crowding at the centres. During the UGEE and other such exams, I witnessed a situation where there was no social distancing at all. Conducting these exams now will pose a big risk to the lives of the students and our families.”

Students from across the country, scheduled to appear for these exams later this month, have been expressing their plight and raising demands to the authorities on social media for a long time now. “My parents and I want the exam to be postponed considering the dire situation in Delhi. I am residing in a containment zone and haven’t stepped out in five months. With cases increasing every day, how do the authorities expect to accommodate over 20 lakh aspirants with social distancing?” asked Rohit Pathak, another JEE aspirant from New Delhi.

Most JEE Main and NEET aspirants are worried about the travel aspect of taking exams. Several students raised issues of staying 150 to 300 kms away from their designated test centres. Garima Nagar, a NEET aspirant from Rohtak, Haryana, said, “I am living in Haryana and my test centre is in Delhi. I don’t own a private vehicle and all public transport is shut. Travelling to far off places in such a situation, when there are patients with major co-morbidities in my family, is a big risk for me.”

Another NEET aspirant, Bharath Reddy from Karnataka’s Gulbarga raised similar issues, also adding that no regular updates from the authorities have added to the stress of the students.

In a letter addressed to the ministry of health and family welfare, the parents’ association of India listed 16 points to postpone the national-level medical entrance exam NEET 2020, to be held on July 26, for which nearly 16 lakh students will appear. In the letter, they asked the government to ‘frame guidelines to compensate for the loss and the mental anguish that the students have had to go through due to the pandemic, in terms of marks, giving more time for preparation and any other way the government finds suitable.’

The letter further questioned, “The most important question to be asked is who will take responsibility if, God forbid, anything happens to any student.”

STUDENTS FROM across the country, scheduled to appear for these exams, have been expressing their plight and raising demands to the authorities on social media for a long time now. Most JEE Main and NEET aspirants are worried about the travel aspect of taking exams.