The Andhra Pradesh government has announced that the Common Entrance Test for Engineering, Agriculture and Pharmacy courses (EAPCET) will be conducted from August 19 to 25. The dates for EAPCET 2021 (formerly known as EAMCET or Engineering Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test) were announced by state Education Minister Audimulapu Suresh on June 19. The entrance test will be called EAPCET from this year, since entrance to medical colleges now comes under NEET, the Minister said. The notification for EAPCET 2021 will be issued on June 24.
Aspirants can submit online applications from June 26 to July 25. Those submitting applications from July 26 to August 5 will have to pay a late fee of Rs 500. Beyond that, the late fee for submissions between August 6 and 10 is Rs 1,000, between August 11 and 15 is Rs 5,000, and between August 16 and 18 is Rs 10,000. The APSCHE (Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education) has proposed that other entrance tests like ECET, ICET, PGECET, LAWCET, EdCET, PECET be conducted in the first and second week fo September 2021.
Earlier this week, the state government was expected to announce the dates for Class 10 board exams at a review meeting with Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, amid a growing demand for cancelling the final exams for Class 10 and Intermediate students. Despite the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) cancelling board exams for Class 10 and Class 12, the Andhra Pradesh government has insisted on holding the exams once the COVID-19 situation is under control.
On June 17, the Education Minister said that the government would take the right decision on conducting the year-end examinations at the appropriate time. "We are keenly observing the situation. We will take an appropriate decision at the appropriate time," Education Minister Audimulapu Suresh said. "Our stand has been the same from the beginning. We want to conduct the examinations only in the interest of the students' future," he maintained. On June 18, the state government extended the COVID-19 curfew in the state till June 30, with relaxations in all districts except East Godavari.
With PTI inputs