Delay in NEET, JEE may hit academics
   Date :06-Jul-2020

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Staff Reporter ;
 
Bhilai,
 
The exam of JEE and NEET has been postponed once again due to COVID-19 epidemic and most of the students as well as parents got a sigh of relief. But medical experts as well as technical experts are worried about this delay and continuous postponement since it will affect the first-year study of medicine and engineering in all colleges and students have to suffer due to delay in organising entrance examinations- JEE Mains, JEE Advanced and NEET.
 
It may be mentioned here that, normally these examinations are held in the month of April (JEE Mains and NEET) and May for JEE Advanced. The results as well as admission process normally begin in June and July and new session would start from August and with this arrangement all medical and engineering would be able to organise first semester examination in December. But this time COVID-19 pandemic has changed the entire scenario and now there is confusion even the entrance would be held in September or not. These prestigious entrance exams have been postponed thrice owing to Coronavirus and with more cases being reported with every passing day, there is doubt whether these exams would be held in September also.
 
This delay in organising of competitive exam and admission process would virtually eat up the first semester for undergraduate studies including B Tech in IIT, NIT, engineering and all medical colleges. With exams are scheduled to take place in September, the admission process has now pushed back to October and new class will not be started before November. In comparison to JEE, the situation of NEET is more complex. With NEET being the only entrance exam to get admission in all medical and dental colleges of the nation, the counselling divided between central and states, it is a longer process.
 
The delay of one month in Medical education would affect the academics of students to a large extent. COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the admission in medical institutions by over two months. Dr A K Chandrakar Dean of Pt Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Medical College Raipur and Vice Chancellor of Ayush Medical and Health University said that medical education has vast curriculum and delay in starting of class would definitely hamper the academic session of MBBS first year students. In this regard, Dr P Banerjee, guest professor in Shri Shankaracharya Medical College Bhilai stated that NTA (National Testing Agency) who is responsible to organise all national-level competitive exams including NEET should take steps in organising NEET at the earliest, he added.