As CBSE, ICSE cancel board exams, all eyes now on NEET-JEE; students seek clarity from HRD minister

With the remaining CBSE and ICSE Board examinations for classes X and XII, scheduled to be held in July, getting cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all eyes have now turned to competitive exams like JEE (Main) 2020 and NEET 2020 which are held for admissions into undergraduate engineering and medical courses. 

Reports had earlier this week said that the HRD Ministry is likely to make an announcement regarding the possibility to hold the exams on the given date or on a fresh date on Thursday. 

The Joint Entrance Examination (Main) for engineering courses is scheduled to be held from July 18-23 this year. They were earlier scheduled for April but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Under Graduate (NEET-UG) on the other hand has been scheduled for July 26, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had said last month. NEET 2020 was earlier to be held on May 3.

Both the exams are conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Together, nearly 25 lakh candidates appear in the two entrance exams. 

As the Supreme Court was informed on Thursday that the remaining CBSE and ICSE Board examinations have been cancelled, students started asking questions regarding JEE and NEET by tagging Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. 

On a tweet promoting HRD Ministry's VidyaDaan2.0 platform, the students asked clarity on the two exams in replies. 

Here are some of the tweets:

Postpone JEE and NEET Examination

— Maddy (@peachh_tae13) June 25, 2020

please sir neet postpone kigea

— SONU KUMAR (@Sonukumar790) June 25, 2020

What about JEE and NEET,?

— Agyani Manav (@Agyani_Manav) June 25, 2020

Postpone neet and jee

— Makardwaj Bhosle (@BhosleMakardwaj) June 25, 2020

Sir its humble recquest as a student to delay jee and neet for some more time...its will just take to shift the academic year just two three months which will be normalised within a year...its really an issue for us to give exam in this situation please consider...this sir

— HY (@HY09128802) June 25, 2020

@HRDMinistry @DrRPNishank please update us with the news of JEE AND NEET Students are waiting for it

— Rahul Hirawat (@hirawat_rahul) June 25, 2020

Earlier today, the government informed the court that all CBSE board exams scheduled in July have been cancelled due to the pandemic. 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 Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) has also cancelled the exam but re-examination option would not be available to its students. The ICSE Board has said it would broadly follow the government's decision on CBSE exams.

The CBSE class XII exams had started on February 15 and were to conclude on April 3. The class X exams had started on February 21 and were to end on March 29. 

However, schools were closed over the coronavirus on March 15 and nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the virus came into force from March 25.