New Delhi: The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) examinations will be held on previously announced dates in September by taking all precautions as per government guidelines, the National Testing Agency (NTA) said categorically on Friday.
There has been a clamour for postponement of the crucial entrance tests from several quarters, including students, parents and politicians.
The NTA said in a statement that even the Supreme Court had not found justification in a petition for postponement of the examinations. “In our opinion, though there is pandemic situation, but ultimately life has to go and the career of the students cannot be put on peril for long and full academic year cannot be wasted… the examination is going to be held with due precaution and it is not going to be postponed. Thus, we find no merit in the writ petition”, NTA said, quoting the court order.
“In this background, it is intimated that, for the first time, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the candidates of JEE (Main) were provided opportunity five times to change their option of Centre City. A total of 661911 candidates availed this opportunity and they were considered for centres based upon their latest (revised) option,” the release further said.
“Now the National Testing Agency (NTA) has also released the Admit Cards for the JEE (Main) Examinations scheduled from 01-09-2020 to 06-09-2020. 649223 Candidates have downloaded their Admit Cards so far, against a total number 858273. NTA is happy to share with the JEE (Main) 2020 candidates that it has been able to offer the first choice of preference of centre cities to 99.07% of the candidates. 142 candidates have, subsequently requested for a change in their allotted centre city due to various reasons, and the NTA is considering these requests positively.”
“As far as, NEET (UG)-2020 is concerned, again for the first time, the Candidates of this examination were given opportunity five times to change their choice of Centre City. A total of 95000 Candidates availed the same and they have been accommodated against their revised choices,” the release said.
“The NEET (UG)-2020 exam is now scheduled on 13-09-2020 and the total of 15,97,433 Candidates are registered for the same. The Admit Cards will be released shortly. Overall, 99.87% Candidates will be accommodated against their first preference of Centre City,” the NTA release added.
Based on the government’s guidelines, NTA has made elaborate arrangements to “sanitise the centres before and after the conduct of the examinations, give fresh masks and hand gloves (as per request).”
The NTA has also prepared a comprehensive advisory, based on the Centre’s guidelines, regarding COVID-19 for all functionaries for centre management.
“In order to solicit support of the states for maintaining law and order condition, power supply, facilitation of movement of candidates and exam functionaries, crowd management in front of exam centres, etc., the NTA has also written to the State Chief Secretaries, DGPs, and DMs/ SPs of the concerned cities. They have also been informed about the Advisory regarding COVID-19 for All Functionaries, and their support has been solicited,” the statement added.
“The personnel involved in conduct of these exams are also being trained on implementation of the NTA’s advisory. Along with the admit card, the NTA has also issued ‘Important Instructions for Candidates’ as well as ‘Advisory for Candidates regarding COVID-19’ explaining them about the safety measures taken by the NTA and the support expected from the candidates for safe and successful conduct of these examinations,” the NTA statement said.