Students take to Twitter to #postponeJEE_NEETinCovid; cry for #NoExamsInCovid

COVID-19 stricken India’s academic gets another blow after the aspirants of two major examinations, Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) took over Twitter to demand a postpone in the examination. A huge number of aspiring students started tweeting to reschedule the entrance tests which were scheduled to be held in September, in the thick of Coronavirus pandemic. The tweets started trending under the hashtag #PostponeJEE_NEETinCovid only to become number 25 within hours.

The two key entrance examinations have already been postponed once in July and were scheduled for September because of the growing numbers of corona virus-infected patients however, since then no notice of further rescheduling was received. According to NTA, the admit cards are to be released on August 28th or 29th. The fear and frustration due to lack of reply from NTA & HRD Ministry fueled the rage of anxious students and their guardians.

Earlier this month, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had announced the delay in the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) Main and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) after considering the prevailing situation of COVID-19 and lockdown in many states of the country. He had announced that the JEE Main entrance test will be held from September 1 to 6 and JEE advanced test will be conducted on September 27, while NEET was scheduled for September 13.

This year around 30 lakh students are going to appear in JEE and NEET combined test and a lot of crowds is expected outside the examination centers. One of the major concerns, they raised is, that it might be possible to maintain social distancing inside the centers but the crowd of parents outside the centers remain vulnerable to the infection.

Here is the list of major concerns raised by the NEET – JEE aspirants:

There might be students already affected by the virus but still haven’t picked up on symptoms and are unaware of which could lead to a fast spread into the crowd.

Many students who are quarantined due to the virus will not be able to attend the exams which may cause stress and anxiety among students leading them to take any unwanted step.

Students living in remote areas would not be able to travel to their allotted centers due to traveling issues amid lockdown.

It is also difficult for the students to concentrate on studying when all they hear is the number of lives the corona virus has claimed.

Wearing a mask for a prolonged period of time in a room with many other students can become suffocating and may affect their performance in the examination and take a hit on the mental health of the students.