On a day when two political parties allied with the ruling BJP joined the Opposition voices calling for a postponement of NEET and JEE, the Education Ministry has reiterated the importance of holding the examinations to ensure that an academic year is not lost. The National Testing Agency called on State officials to help ensure safe conduct of the examinations and noted that lakhs of students have already downloaded their admit cards.
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“If the examinations are postponed again, the year will be lost. There are those calling for the examination to be held after Diwali, but that is followed by the Chath festival in eastern India on November 26. If the exam is held in the first week of December, then results will not come until January and 2020 will be lost,” said Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare, noting that other undergraduate admissions will be pushed further if professional college admissions are delayed again.
NTA Director General Vineet Joshi told Doordarshan News that the agency has received representations from large groups of students who want the examination to be postponed as well as those who do not, and had decided to go ahead in the interest of the students’ academic career. Of the 8.5 lakh students who have registered for JEE, 7.4 lakh have downloaded their admit cards over the last week. NEET admit cards were made available on Wednesday, and 6.8 lakh candidates (of the 15.9 lakh registered) downloaded their documents in the first five hours.
Onus back on States
Mr. Joshi said the NTA, which is an autonomous agency under the Education Ministry, is working with the State police and local officials to ensure smooth movement of students on the examination date and make safe arrangements to let students arrive and leave examination centre venues in safety, putting the onus back on States.
NSUI begins strike against JEE, NEET
On Wednesday, the Tamil Nadu government, headed by the AIADMK which is allied to the BJP at the Centre, has communicated its unwillingness to conduct the medical entrance examinations this year.
In a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, his TN counterpart C. Vijaybaskar suggested that Class 12 marks be used instead of NEET results. Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan, a BJP ally, who had already written to Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, wrote to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the issue as well. An LJP source said Mr. Nishank had assured Mr. Paswan that a review would be held within the Ministry within a day or two.
