NEET 2020 Exam day finally dawns; 15 lakh to appear amid full-scale anti-Covid precautions

Over 15 lakh candidates will appear for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), for admission to medical courses across the country on Sunday, September 12. The medical entrance examination will be held with strict precautions in the view of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, an official of the NTA said.

The crucial medical exam has been deferred twice earlier. In order to ensure that social distancing is maintained, the NTA has increased the number of centres from 2,546 to 3,843 and the number of candidates per room has been reduced from earlier 24 to 12. This has led to changes in centres for a few candidates, however, the city of exam centre remains unchanged for all.

A total of 15.97 lakh students have registered for the pen and paper-based test. NEET was originally scheduled for May 3, but was pushed to July 26, and then to September 13 considering the pandemic situation.

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'Staggered entry and exit of candidates'

"For ensuring social distancing outside examination halls, a staggered entry and exit of candidates has been planned. Adequate arrangements have also been made outside examination centres to enable candidates stand with adequate social distancing while waiting," a senior NTA official said.

The Candidates have also been issued an advisory guiding them about the 'dos and don'ts' for proper social distancing. NTA has also written to the state governments to extend support in local transportation of the candidates so that they are able to reach their examination centres in time, the official added.

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Steps taken by NTA to conduct safe examination

Some of the major steps taken by the testing agency to conduct safe examination include; making hand sanitisers available at the entrance of the examination centre and inside the exam hall at all times, increasing the number of examination centres, replacing the process of checking the admit cards of candidates with barcode readers, alternate seating plans, fewer candidates per room and staggered entry and exit.

All the candidates are asked to come to the exam centres with masks and sanitisers and once they enter the centre, they will have to use the masks provided by the examination authority, NTA said. "Each candidate will be offered a three-ply mask at the time of entry and are expected to wear the same during the examination in order to avoid any form of unfair means at the time of examination," the official added.

Meanwhile, the governments of Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh have assured students that they will provide transportation. A group of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni and students have launched a portal to provide transport facilities to exam centres for the candidates in need.

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Exam guidelines for NEET 2020 (key features)

1. No bags, books or mobiles are allowed in exam halls and frisking may be undertaken post-Thermal screening if needed at the NEET 2020 exam hall.
2. For movement inside exam halls, Centre has advised institutes to adopt contact-less processes like OR code, online, digital signatures.
3. For pen and paper exams, Centre has advised opening answer sheets only 72 hours after collection and advised invigilators and applicants to sanitise their hands prior to receiving papers.
4. The Centre has also advised isolating students developing symptoms and informing the nearest medical facility if health deteriorates.

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(With agency inputs)