With cases steadily rising across the country, the Ministry of Human Resource Development yesterday asked the National Testing Agency to review the examination dates for NEET and JEE Main 2020. Students have been rallying on various social media platforms, demanding for the entrance examinations for admission to medical and engineering colleges be deferred. The delay, however, is not an easy decision – as it impacts the already curtailed academic year.
2020 and the Coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on the academic calendar. Most of the board examinations were affected, almost all the board results were delayed. Further to that, all competitive examinations were delayed – in turn affecting the admissions to undergraduate courses. Though schools have started in online mode, fresh admissions to engineering, medial and other undergraduate courses rely on board and competitive examinations.
JEE Main, NEET Dates - Exam and Admission Cycle and the Impact
JEE and NEET – the two national level examination are responsible for the admissions to the IITs, NITs, AIIMS and all medical colleges. Usually conducted in April and May, the sessions after the admission process begins, is completed by end of July, with classes beginning from August 1 itself. But that has been already delayed.
With the present JEE Main and NEET scheduled in July, it was expected that the admission process may be completed by September, and the new academic session, though truncated, may begin by end September or latest by October. Another delay, may further create concerns on the new academic year – virtually erasing a semester.
Undergraduate courses in most of the courses, including the IITs and NITs and medical colleges are divided into semesters. The first semester is usually from August to December with the examinations scheduled for the end of the year. Another delay, even by one month, would virtually eat up the first semester for undergraduate courses.
Impact of further delay of JEE Main and NEET exam dates
Let us say, JEE Main 2020 are further delayed till August. Provided conditions do not worsen and actually improve, if they are conducted in August, the JEE Advanced 2020 examination may be pushed back to end of August or latest by first week of September. Declaration of Result would be a 10 day process and then the counselling would need to begin.
Hence, a delay of 10 days in JEE Main may push the start of counselling from September to the month of October. Similar would be a case for medical entrance examination – NEET. Also, with NEET, the case becomes more precarious.
With NEET being the only entrance examination for medical and dental college admissions – and the counselling divided between central and states, it is a longer process. Combined, counselling for both IITs, NITs and Medical/ Dental admissions may take about a month to complete. In turn, this would mean that the new academic session may well begin from November.
(Content Source: timesnownews)
