The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD postponed the upcoming National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) on Friday. NEET 2020 was scheduled to be held on Sunday, May 3, 2020. The medical entrance test is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admission to MBBS, BDS and other undergraduate medical courses. Now, with nation-wide lockdown in place, the exam has to be postponed.
A public notice from the NTA said, "In view of the hardships faced by the parents and the students due to COVID-19 epidemic, the National Testing Agency has postponed the ensuing NEET (UG) May 2020 examination scheduled to be held on the 3rd May 2020."
It added, "As of now the examination is proposed to be held in the last week of May 2020. Exact date will be announced later on after assessing the situation."
Admit cards for the examination, which were to be issued on Friday, would be issued later after assessing the situation after April 15, 2020 only, said the NTA.
While students were supposed to download their NEET admit cards on Friday, March 27, on Thursday, the NTA announced that it would not be releasing the admit cards online. With March being the month of annual school examinations, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted scheduled examinations. While it is expected that the board exams will be rescheduled at a later date, this means that the NEET exam too will be pushed further. This uncertainity over the exam's schedule, however, has come as a breather for students, giving them more time to prepare. NTA has also recently clarified that the syllabus for NEET UG 2020 has not been changed.
"The candidates and their parents are advised to keep visiting ntaneet.nic.in and www.nta.ac.in for latest updates. They are also being informed individually through their registered mobile number/ email-id. The candidates can also contact at 8700028512, 8178359845, 9650173668, 9599676953, 8882356803 for any further clarification." said the NTA's statement.
MHRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had also asked JEE (Main) examination to be postponed, said a tweet from the Ministry.
Since Parents and Students have to travel to different examination centres, to avoid any inconvenience to them, Union HRD Minister @DrRPNishank has directed National Testing Agency @DG_NTA to postpone NEET (UG) 2020 and JEE(Main) till last week of May. pic.twitter.com/vbEFffHfTg
— Ministry of HRD (@HRDMinistry) March 27, 2020
States like Kerala and Karnataka cancelled Class 12 state board exams while in Tamil Nadu, only the last exam, scheduled for March 26, was cancelled. When Section 144, restricting movement, was implemented in Tamil Nadu on March 24, most students were unable to reach their examination centres on time. It was reported that about 34,000 students were unable to appear for their state board exam.
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Class 12 students were able to complete their exams, however correction of papers has been put on hold.
On March 19, The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) announced its decision to postpone all Indian Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (ICSE) and ISC 2020 (class 10 and 12 respectively) examinations scheduled to be conducted between March 19 and 31. This announcement came a day after MHRD asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and all other boards to postpone ongoing exams for classes 10 and 12.