On Thursday, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal announced the establishment of a committee to review the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic and the safety of exams under circumstances that will be considered in the long-awaited tests on NEETs and JEEs.

The committee shall send its recommendations to the HRD Minister by Friday with the DG National Testing Agency and other experts as members. The final announcement shall follow after that.

There have been 9 lakh candidates ready to take the JEE (Main) and about 16 lakhs to register for the NEET.

Around the time, students from all over the world are demonstrating and asking for NEET and JEE to be postponed. In order to postpone the exams even longer, the Committee’s decision would further postpone the admission of new students to universities and the beginning of courses for first-year students. A new academic calendar to start the fresh batch in the first week of September was introduced in April by the University Grants Commission.

Furthermore, the postponement of JEE (Main) will postpone the JEE (Advanced) dates as the candidates for JEE (Advanced) will be required to clear first the JEE (Main) exam.

The HRD Ministry had previously postponed all competitive exams planned for April, May, and June in accordance with the lockdown.

On 5 May, the Ministry announced the JEE (Main) – the NIT admission gateway exam – to be conducted over five days, from 18 to 23 July. The Ministry also declared that the NEET examination would take place on 26 July for undergraduate medical programs.