NEET 2021: Demand for exam deferment escalates, Over 15,000 candidates sign online petition

The petition on change.org, has been signed by more than 15,000 students already and the petitioners have pointed out how the undergraduate medical entrance examination, which is scheduled to take place on September 12, is clashing with CBSE private exams, and state and national level UG entrance exams.

"To avoid this clash and have time to prepare for NEET-UG 2021, students are demanding that the exam be postponed to October," mentions the online petition.

Medical Dialogues had recently reported that the candidates have been demanding the deferment of the exam for some time now and they even started trending hashtags such as #delayNEETUG, #postponeneetUG2021tilloctober etc.

Also Read: NTA Officials confirm no change in NEET 2021 exams, candidates cry '#justice' on Twitter

The students pointed out on Twitter how the exam was clashing with several other examination dates such as CBSE private and improvement and ICAR.

CBSE Class 12 improvement and compartment exams have been scheduled to be held between August 25 and September 15. In fact, the math paper is just the day after the date for NEET UG. Besides, the dates for ICAR AIEEA, the national-level undergraduate entrance exam for BSc courses, OJEE 2021, Maharashtra CET 2021 are also close to NEET UG.

However, recently the National Testing Agency has confirmed that the exam is going to be held on September 12, as scheduled and NTA DG Vineet Joshi had recently told the media that "There is no direct clash of NEET with CBSE board exams, it will be held as scheduled on September 12."

The Union Education Ministry has also confirmed recently that the exam date is not going to be changed as any change in the exam date would delay the exam by 60 to 70 days due to logistical issues and this may cause an indefinite delay in the exam due to other uncertainties.

However, this stand of NTA and the Union Education Ministry didn't go down well with the aspirants as they have started trending #JusticeforNEETUGAspirants on Twitter.

Now, the students have started signing an online petition on change.org which clearly mentions their demand – "Postpone NEET-UG 2021 to October." The candidates have however clarified that the reason they are demanding the postponement of the exam "isn't just covid".

After mentioning the schedule for several other examinations, the petition points out, "Many students are writing multiple exams along with neet and this would make the exam stress high if the neet date is close to these exams dates."

"NEET UG aspirants also require more time for preparing for the exam because of the change in the new exam pattern which was announced two months prior to the exam date," further reads the online petition.

Apart from the clashing of the exam date and the new exam pattern, the students have further pointed out in their petition how the States like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal were hit by heavy rain and flood and the internet connectivity was hampered.

"Hence, several students from these regions couldn't fill in the NEET-UG application form. They have requested to extend the application window for the same," pointed out the petitioners.

The petition further refers to the date scheduled for JEE adv. If the academic session of students appearing in JEE adv could be managed, "Then why not NEET in October" the petition has questioned.

"We don't have multiple attempts like JEE main. For MBBS NEET-UG is the only entrance exam (as AIIMS, JIPMER are scrapped out). Medical colleges are only to start in February in India, so a postponement of neet date by one month won't be a problem," the petition read.

Thus, requesting the Education Minister and NTA to take the "wise decision of postponing the neet exam to October", the petitioners have claimed this would help students deal with the mental stress and would give equal chance to the candidates for performing well during this tough time.

Also Read: PostponeNEET trends again: Aspirants cite clash of several exams