NEW DELHI: Following demands of thousands of students and their guardians, the Union Human Resources Development Ministry has decided to further defer the crucial engineering and medical competitive entrance examinations - JEE (Main) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test- this year.
The new dates for JEE (Main) are between September 1 and 6 and NEET, the admission test for medical and dental colleges, will now be held on September 13.
The government also announced that JEE (Advanced), the entrance test for the Indian Institutes of Technology and National Institutes of technology will be held on September 27.
As per the schedule announced in May, JEE (Main) was to be held between July 18-23 while the NEET was planned for July 26.
The latest decision, however, has been taken keeping in mind the safety of lakhs of students in view of the prevailing Covid 19 outbreak situation, said HRD minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank.
The announcement by the ministry came following recommendations by a panel under the National Testing Agency director general, Vineet Joshi.
It is the NTA under the HRD ministry that will organise JEE (Main) and NEET while JEE (Advanced) will be conducted by IITs directly.
Following the fresh announcements, a final decision is now expected on final year university examinations even as a panel formed by the University Grants Commission has recommended cancelling the exams and assigning marks based on previous semesters and internal assessments.
The government has already declared that the remaining CBSE class X and XII examinations are also being cancelled and an alternative scoring system is being adopted.
The ministry has however said that optional examinations for class XII students could be held later if the Covid 19 situation gets better.