HRD Ministry Asks NTA to Postpone form Submission for Entrance Exams by One Month

Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Union Cabinet Minister for Human Resource Development, Government of India, has advised the National Testing Agency (NTA) to defer the last date of form submission for various entrance examinations by a month. The decision was taken in the wake of the pandemic.

The examinations include Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) Entrance, UGC National Eligibility Test (NET), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) NET, National Council of Hotel Management and Catering Technology Joint Entrance Examination(NCHM JEE), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) PhD and Management Entrance Exams.

Taking to the microblogging site Twitter, the Cabinet Minister wrote, “To enable students to fill up their application forms during these testing times, I have advised @DG_NTA to postpone the last date of acceptance of applications of ICAR Exam, JNU Entrance Exam, UGC NET, CSIR NET, NCHM JEE, IGNOU PhD and Management Entrance Exams by 1 month”.

Earlier, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had directed the NTA to postpone NEET (UG) 2020 and JEE(Main) examinations till last week of May.

“Since Parents and Students have to travel to different examination centres, to avoid any inconvenience to them, I have directed National Testing Agency @DG_NTA to postpone NEET (UG) 2020 and JEE(Main) till last week of May”.

“In view of the hardships faced by the parents and the students due to COVID-19 epidemic, the National Testing Agency has postponed the ensuing NEET (UG) May 2020 examination scheduled to be held on the 3rd May 2020,” read the NTA release.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has been established as a premier, specialist, an autonomous and self-sustained testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for admission/fellowship in higher educational institutions.