Amid Speculations on New Date for NEET 2021, Aspirants Demand Exam Deferment

These demands have come after the Union Government held a high-level meeting on Sunday to arrive at a decision regarding conducting board and entrance examinations amidst the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting was chaired by the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister for Women and Child Smriti Zubin Irani, and Union Minister, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, reports NDTV. The state education ministers also attended the meeting.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that NTA had previously announced that the gateway to medical admission, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test 2021 (NEET 2021), would be held on August 1, this year.

NTA, operative under the Ministry of Education, The government of India, had informed that the NEET (UG) 2021 would be conducted in 11 languages, through Pen & Paper mode on 01 August 2021 (Sunday).

The notice further informed that the Information Bulletin containing detailed information regarding the Test, syllabus, eligibility criteria for age, reservation, categorization of seats, examination fee, cities of examination, State Code, etc. would be available shortly on the official website after the commencement of submission of Application Forms.

Also Read: NEET 2021 to be held on August 1 in Pen and Paper Mode: NTA releases details

As per the latest media report by News 18, although the exam was scheduled to be held on August 1, NTA is yet to release the application form for the same.

NDTV adds that the high-level meeting proposed that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will announce Class 12 exam dates on June 1 and the entrance examinations like NEET-UG 2021, and JEE Main 2021 would also be conducted. However, no new dates were given regarding NEET UG 2021.

The daily further adds that any changes to the existing schedule of NEET-UG 2021 would be announced after June 1, after the announcement of new CBSE 12^th Board exam dates.

Meanwhile, the students have started raising their voices and demanding for the deferment of the undergraduate medical entrance examination till October 2021. Citing the stressful environment amidst the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, many have started sharing their views on their Twitter handles.

One user wrote, "In this intense environment, where almost daily a new disease is breaking out and we came across knowing deaths, we need some more time for NEET UG. as in this depressing atmosphere we can't study KINDLY POSTPONE IT TILL OCTOBER."

Pointing out the need to vaccinate everyone before conducting the exam, another aspirant wrote, "However its going to take long for vaccinating all the aspirants and invigilators , and also we need time for self studying. #postponeneet2021 #postponeneet2021UG."

Demanding online examination, one wrote on Twitter, "this time they r in lakhs n u still wanna ask students to come give offline exams. The whole year was online then why not online exams or any other alternatives conducting 90mins or 3hrs exam its the same danger. Don't risk student live."

Meanwhile, NDTV adds that during the meeting on Sunday, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia stressed on the need to vaccinate all the candidates before conducting the entrance examinations including NEET UG 2021.

"The country's 1.5 crore students and 1.5 crore teachers should all be vaccinated first," he said.

"We must speak to health experts about whether we can use the vaccines available to us on students who are 17.5 years old," the minister said.