Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Union HRD Minister, declared his final decision on Friday to postpone the JEE Main and NEET 2020 examinations.

He further stated that ensuring high-quality education and considering the safety of applicants, we decided to postpone these exams. This decision will reduce the burden on students and give them an opportunity to be more comfortable when preparing for the exam.

NEET exam is conducted for admission in medical colleges across the country. The same JEE exam is also conducted for admission in engineering colleges across the country.

 Nishank said on Thursday that considering the current situation and requests received from parents and students appearing for NEET and JEE exams, an advised is giving to a committee composed of NTA officials and other authorities to review the prevailing situation and submit their recommendations before tomorrow”.

Approximately 9,00,000 candidates have registered for the JEE (Main) exam, while around 15.5 lakhs have registered for the NEET-undergraduate exams.

The vast number of aspirants who have applied for the JEE Main and NEET examinations demanded to delay these exams due to the rapid surge in the coronavirus cases in the country.

The Minister of Human Resources demanded a panel of experts headed by the Director-General of the National Testing Agency (NTA) Vineet Joshi, to submit a report on the feasibility of conducting the exam by Friday.

Thus, a panel constituted by Union HRD Minister, submitted its report today and recommended the postponing of medical entrance examination and engineering entrance examination in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.

Keeping in mind the safety of students and to ensure quality education we have decided to postpone #JEE & #NEET examinations. JEE Main examination will be held between 1st-6th Sept, JEE advanced exam will be held on 27th Sept & NEET examination will be held on 13th Sept. pic.twitter.com/klTjtBxvuw

— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) July 3, 2020

NEET 2020 was conducted on July 26 while the JEE main exam was scheduled to be conducted on July 18 to 23 and JEE(Advanced) was held on August 23.

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

Many applicants had been signing online petitions and organizing Twitter campaigns to demanding the government to postpone the engineering and medical entrance exams as well.

On Wednesday, the parents of nearly four thousand NRI students based in West Asia also filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding the postponement of medical entrance exams. They pointed out that there are no test centers outside India and international travel is still restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

NEET examination will be held on September 13, JEE Main examination will be held amid September 1 to 6, JEE Advanced exam will be held on September 27.

Notice regarding postponement of the JEE Main 2020 examination and NEET 2020 examination will be released soon on the National Testing Agency website i.e. nta.ac.in, the body conducting the examination. Students preparing for these exams will be able to see the notice on the official website about postponing the JEE Main 2020 exam and NEET 2020 in a while.

In terms of taking the exams, the Covid-19 pandemic poses a challenge, and in India, the scale is very high. Therefore, in the future, NTA is looking at the building capacity for holding online exams, in which candidates can take online exams at home, an official said. However, it will take some time for NTA to hold competitive exams online and the delay is probably to impact the academic calendar.

According to sources, counseling for these two significant exams will start in October and freshers can commence classes in November end or in the first week of December. However, the final draft has not been revealed yet.

Besides this, Sonia Gandhi, a congress President, sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi today urging him to expand the OBC candidates’ reservation in all-India quotas medical and dental seats in institutions run by states and federal universities. She said that bookings of all OBC candidates under the Indian quota in the NEET Medical admissions test are currently confined to central institutions.