NEET and JEE Main Exam to Go Ahead as Per Schedule in September, Confirms National Testing Agency

The Joint Entrance Examination (Main) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) will be conducted in September as scheduled, officials in the Ministry of Education said on Friday.

The ministry's National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts these exams, confirmed that the JEE (Main) exam will be be held from September 1-6 and NEET (UG) on September 13.

The announcement came on a day when there was speculation that dates for the JEE and NEET, which are held for admission to premier engineering and medical schools of the country, may be delayed by a few more days amid a demand by students.

JEE and NEET are usually conducted in the month of April, but are set to be held in September after the Supreme Court dismissed pleas for further postponement earlier this week. The JEE (Main) exam will be held between September 1 and 6 and JEE (Advanced) on September 27. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is slated to be conducted on September 13.

In its statement, the NTA said over 6.4 lakh candidates have downloaded their admit cards for the engineering entrance exam JEE-Main. It said 6,49,223 candidates have downloaded their admit cards so far against a total of 8,58,273.

"The NTA is happy to share with the JEE (Main) 2020 candidates that it has been able to offer the first choice of preference of centre cities to 99.07 per cent of the candidates," it said, adding that "142 candidates have, subsequently, requested for a change in their allotted centre city due to various reasons, and the NTA is considering these requests positively".

It said as far as "NEET (UG)-2020 is concerned, again for the first time, candidates of this examination were given opportunity five times to change their choice of centre city".

A total of 95,000 candidates availed the same and they have been accommodated against their revised choices, the NTA said.

There have been demands from several students and parents to further postpone the entrance exams in view of increasing coronavirus cases.

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking postponement of JEE (Main) April 2020 and NEET-Undergraduate examinations, which are scheduled to be conducted in September, amid spurt in number of COVID-19 cases, saying precious year of students "cannot be wasted" and life has to go on.

The NTA said it has made elaborate arrangements to sanitise centres before and after the examinations, and give fresh masks and hand gloves. "The NTA has also prepared a comprehensive advisory regarding COVID-19 for all functionaries for centre management," it said.

In order to solicit support of states for maintaining law and order, power supply, facilitation of movement of candidates and exam functionaries, crowd management in front of exam centres, "we have also written to the state chief secretaries, DGPs, and DMs/ SPs of the concerned cities", the NTA said.