The Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal announced the dates for Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) and the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) on Tuesday. JEE (Mains) will be held from July 18 to July 23. JEE (Advanced) will subsequently be held in August.
NEET is slated to be held on July 26.
In an interaction he held online, the HRD Minister said that a decision would soon be taken regarding CBSE Class 10 and 12 board exams.
The exams were postponed due to nationwide lockdown announced to contain the COVID-19 spread.
While JEE (Mains) is conducted for admission to engineering colleges across the country, the NEET is held for medical colleges.
More than 15 lakh students across the country have registered for NEET this year, which is the gateway to medical colleges in India, whereas more than 9 lakh have registered for JEE Mains, the entrance exam for all other engineering colleges except IITs.
The JEE-Mains is considered as a qualifying exam for JEE (Advanced).
The HRD Ministry's National Testing Agency (NTA) had also given students an option to change their opted centres for the two tests as students have moved to different places since the lockdown.
Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16 when the centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as one of the measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. Later, a nationwide lockdown was announced from March 25, which was extended till May 17.
India, as of Tuesday morning, has reported 46433 cases of COVID-19 with a few states seeing a sharp spike in the numbers. This is 3900 cases higher than the numbers reported on Monday morning.
Since educational institutions were ordered to shut down due to the lockdown, many examinations scheduled to take place between March and May have been postponed. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had announced that it was postponing the board exams for classes 10 and 12 in 29 subjects crucial for promotion and admission to higher education institutions.
(With PTI inputs)