COVID Lockdown: JEE and NEET in May, CBSE exams asap says MHRD

NEW DELHI: The government is hoping the national entrance exams for engineering and medicine can be conducted in May and the results declared in June, the Ministry of Human Resource Development said on March 30.

The COVID-19 lockdown has led to postponement of almost all entrance examinations. The cascading effect is also likely to disrupt the next academic session.

JEE and NEET

HRD secretary told the Indian Express that revised schedules have been prepared for entrance exams. “If the lockdown ends in April, we can conduct the exams in May. That is what we have planned for JEE and NEET,” Amit Khare said.

Khare said the JEE/NEET results will be announced in June and admissions can be completed by July-end. He hoped that the time lost due to the COVID lockdown can be made up by holding extra classes on Saturdays. “We have discussed this with higher education institutions,” he said, adding that the government’s attempt was to see to it that the “new session should not be delayed by more than a month”.

CBSE exams

About the CBSE exams that have been postponed, Khare said the exams will be conducted “as soon as the lockdown is lifted”. “The pending papers can be completed in May and results will be announced in June,” the HRD secretary said.

The HRD secretary said modalities will have to be worked out if the lockdown extends beyond April 14. He said the sanctity of the exams has to be upheld and so, students cannot be allowed to appear for exams from home. At the same time, arranging transport would be a problem and students who depend on public transport cannot be discriminated against those who can afford transport on their own.

Regarding next year’s Class 10 and 12 board exams, Khare said options like compressing the syllabus and postponing the exams by a month could be looked at to make up for the lost time.

Also read:

• COVID-19 Lockdown: Visits to e-learning sites up threefold, says MHRD
• Coronavirus: Now home, NEET, JEE aspirants seek change of exam centre

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