Deccan Chronicle

Greta, too, wants NEET, JEE exams put off

-

THE JEE (Main) is scheduled to be held between September 1 and 6, while the JEE (Advanced) on September 27. The NEET will be held on September 13.

London, Aug. 25: Swedish teen climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg on Tuesday threw her weight behind postponing the NEET and the JEE exams in India in view of the Coronaviru­s, saying it is “deeply unfair” that students are asked to appear in the tests during the pandemic.

Several students and political leaders across the country, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and DMK President M.K. Stalin, have urged the central government to postpone the examinatio­n until the spread of the

Covid-19 was brought under control.

Voicing her support to the calls for the deferment of the key national examinatio­ns, Thunberg took to Twitter, saying it is deeply unfair for the students. “It’s deeply unfair that students of India are asked to sit national exams during the Covid19 pandemic and while millions have also been impacted by the extreme floods. I stand with their call to #PostponeJE­E_NEETinCOVI­D,” she said in a tweet.

Thunberg, 17, has become a leading voice for action on climate change, inspiring millions of students to join protests around the world. She was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for

2019. Two years ago, she started missing lessons most Fridays to protest outside the Swedish Parliament building, in what turned out to be the beginning of a huge environmen­tal movement.

The chorus for postponing the various examinatio­ns, including NEET and JEE, grew louder on Sunday with over 4,000 students observing a daylong hunger strike to press for the demand in view of the rising Covid19 cases. The protest came on a day Gandhi said the government must listen to the ‘mann ki baat’ of students and arrive at “an acceptable solution” and his party demanded that the NEET and the JEE be deferred. According to the leftist All India Students Associatio­n (AISA), over

4,200 students observed the day-long hunger strike at their respective home demanding that CBSE compartmen­t exams of Classes 10 and 12 be cancelled and entrance exams such as the UGCNET, CLAT, NEET and JEE be postponed. Aspirants appear in the JEE for admission into the premier engineerin­g colleges and the NEET for undergradu­ate medical courses.

The JEE (Main) is scheduled to be held between September 1 and 6, while the JEE (Advanced) on September 27. The NEET will be held on September

13. With 60,975 people testing positive for the Coronaviru­s infection in a day, India’s Covid-19 tally on Tuesday rose to 31,67,323.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India