NEET 2020 exam postponed to September 13; JEE Main from Sept 1-6; Advanced on Sept 27

While announcing the new dates for NEET, JEE Main and Advanced, Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said in a statement that the safety of people is the top priority of the government, followed by quality education.

HRD ministry announced that JEE Main examination has been postponed in the wake of coronavirus pandemic and will be held between September 1-6. JEE Advanced, which was earlier scheduled for August 23, has also been postponed to September 27.

HRD Ministry has announced the postponement of Medical entrance exam NEET to September 13 in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) released marks imputation formula on July 3 for the remaining ICSE year 2020 examination. The formula has been released after ICSE decided not to hold remaining exams for Class 10th and Class 12th.

The much-awaited decision on JEE Main & NEET is likely to impact around 9 lakh JEE Main candidates and approximately 16 lakh NEET candidates. If JEE Main gets postponed, it is highly likely that JEE Advanced, currently scheduled for August 23, will also get postponed.

HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank is expected to announce the government's decision by Friday evening after receiving recommendations from Director-General National Testing Agency (NTA) and other experts.

More than 15 lakh students had applied for NEET 2020 while nearly 9 lakh for JEE Main exams.

In order to continue the teaching process amid Coronavirus crisis, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank On Thursday released a new alternative academic calendar for primary classes. The calendar, which contains eight-week subject wise teaching-learning directives and is in continuation to the previous calendar released in April, is developed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

"The fact that many of us may not have internet facility in the mobile, or may not be able to use different social media tools- such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc., the calendar guides teachers to further guide parents and students through SMS on mobile phones or through voice call. Parents are expected to help elementary stage students to implement this calendar," he said.

The calendar caters to the need of all children including Divyang children. It includes links for audiobooks, radio programmes and video programmes.

The remaining CBSE and ICSE Board examinations for classes X and XII, scheduled to be held in July, were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court was informed on June 25.

The examinees of class XII students of CBSE Board will, however, have the option of either taking the exams later or to move ahead with the assessment based on their performance in the last three internal exams. The re-exam option will not be available to class X students. The option of re-examination would not be available to the ICSE Board students -- neither class XII nor class X.

A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar took note of submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the CBSE, that Class X and XII board examinations scheduled from July 1-15 have been cancelled. He said a scheme has been formulated to give options to students of XII only -- for re-examination or assessment based on past performance.

The CBSE said the re-exam would be conducted when the situation becomes conducive and the option to take up the re-exam would not be available to class X examinees. The results may be declared in mid-August, the CBSE said on being asked by the court to clarify as to when the academic year will begin after the declaration of results.

The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) however told the bench, which also comprised Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna, that it will not be giving re-examination option to students of Class X and XII and the results would be declared on the basis of past performances.

Medical entrance exam National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is scheduled on July 26, the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE)-Mains, for admission in engineering colleges, is scheduled from July 18-23.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had last week cancelled some board exam papers scheduled from July 1 to 15 after a group of parents moved the Supreme Court raising concerns about COVID-19 exposure risk to students.

Students have been signing online petitions and pursuing Twitter campaigns, and requesting the government to postpone the engineering and medical entrance exams as well. 

Parents of nearly 4,000 NRI students based in West Asia also filed a petition in the Supreme Court Wednesday demanding the NEET be a postponed. They have noted that there are no exam centres outside India and international travel is still restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Assuming that they (the students) have seats in Vande Bharat Mission flights, the students will be exposed to Covid-19 risks as also they would have to undergo quarantine on their arrival in India," the petition filed by the parents said.

(PTI)

Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay will go completely online next semester and not call students for face to face lectures in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, its director said on last week.

The decision, the first by any IIT, followed deliberations that went on till late night on June 25.

"After a long deliberation in the Senate, we have decided that the next semester will be run purely in the online mode so that there is no compromise on the safety and well being of the students. The COVID pandemic has made us rethink the way we impart education to our students,” IIT-Bombay director Subhasis Chaudhuri said in a statement to the media.

"To ensure that our students begin the academic year without further delay, we are planning on extensive online classes details of which will be informed to all students in due course of time," he added.

The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi has broken its previous years' record of campus placements despite economic slowdown triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak and several companies pulling back their job offers, IIT officials said on Tuesday.

According to the officials, over 1,100 offers, including multiple pre-placement ones, were made to the institute's graduating students from various national and international organisations.  

"IIT Delhi has broken all previous year records of job placements. This year, it was observed that the number of placement offers increased by 4 per cent. Approximately, 85.6 pc undergraduate and postgraduate students who availed placement services of the institute got placed," said S Dharmaraja, Head, Office of Career Services (OCS)

"The remaining students explored for other options like higher studies, research, civil services examination, start-ups or have got jobs through their own contacts and efforts," he added.

(PTI)