Mamata Banerjee Appeals to Centre to Postpone JEE, NEET Exams amid Covid-19 Pandemic

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday appealed to the Centre to postpone the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation.

Aspirants sit for JEE for admission to premier engineering colleges and NEET for undergraduate medical courses.

Banerjee, in a series of tweets on Monday morning, said she was vocal about the issue during the last video conference of chief ministers with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“In our last video conference with the Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodiJi, I had been vocal against the UGC guidelines mandating completion of terminal examinations in Universities/Colleges by the end of September 2020, which had a huge potential to put student lives at risk,” she tweeted.

Banerjee appealed to the Centre to assess the risk and postpone the examinations until the situation is conducive again.

“Now with the directive of @EduMinOfIndiato conduct NEET, JEE 2020 in Sep, I would again appeal to the Centre to assess the risk and postpone these examinations until the situation is conducive again. It is our duty to ensure a safe environment for all our students,” she said in another Twitter post.

Earlier, on July 11, Banerjee had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his urgent intervention regarding UGC decision to conduct terminal examination for various courses in colleges and universities in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic.

“In the prevailing situation, such revised guidelines issued by the UGC, will only adversely affect the interest of students of West Bengal and all over the country. I understand that various states have already raised the issue with the Government of India expressing their concerns and disagreement with the new guidelines,” the state chief minister had said.

The Supreme Court had dismissed a plea seeking the postponement of JEE (Main) April, 2020 and NEET (Undergraduate) examinations, which are scheduled to be held in September, amid a spurt in COVID-19 cases, saying precious year of students “cannot be wasted” and “life has to go on”.

The JEE (Main) is scheduled to be held between September 1 and 6, while the JEE (Advanced) on September 27. The NEET will be held on September 13.

On Friday, Education Ministry officials had said the JEE (Main) and the NEET-UG will be conducted in September as scheduled.