New Delhi: In view of COVID-19 pandemic, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has been asked by the HRD Ministry to double the number of examination centres across the country in order to adhere to the social distancing norms during the exam.
According to a report in Indian Express, the NTA is now planning to make candidates sit two metres apart from each other. Earlier, candidates were made to sit at a distance of one metre, as per NTA rules.
Earlier NTA had planned to accommodate 15 lakh candidates in 3,000 centres. However, now it has to accommodate the candidates in nearly 6,000 test centres.
A senior NTA officer told Indian Express, “I doubt if a competitive exam has ever been held across so many centres in a single day.”
“It will take us a month to identify an additional 3,000 test centres for NEET,” he added.
NTA usually prefers to make Kendriya Vidyalayas, CBSE-affiliated schools, engineering colleges and state government colleges as test centres for NEET exam.
NEET will be held across the country on July 26, 2020.