Chandigarh Students preparing for Joint Entrance Examinations (Main) for admission to engineering and architecture institutes are a worried lot after the exams were postponed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Though NTA had previously stated that new dates for the examination would be announced after March 31, the countrywide lockdown up to April 15 makes that doubtful.
“The academic schedule is set in such a manner that we have maximum opportunities to sit for entrance exams to various institutes. With JEE as well as the Central Board of Secondary Education exams postponed, we are worried that some doors will be closed for us,” says JEE candidate Vibhuti Vaidya.
On rescheduling JEE, Shilpa Khanna, physics teacher in a private Chandigarh school, says, “JEE is a national level exam. While deciding its dates, NTA will have to check the availability of the operational structure in examination centres and the release of admit cards. As many exams are already postponed due to this health emergency, NTA will also have to check that other examinations do not clash with JEE Mains and JEE Advanced.
JEE (Main), scheduled for April 5, 7, 9 and 11, was postponed on March 18.
“Till April 16, there is a lockdown which could continue till May. Even if JEE (Main) is conducted in the first week of May, I assume JEE (Advanced) and counselling process will be compressed. Usually there is a gap of one-and-a-half months between mains and advanced, but now it could be less,” said Pushkar Rai, centre head, Allen coaching institute.
“I feel that academic year will not be wasted, maybe they will shorten the semesters but we are hopeful that classes will begin on time,” Rai added.
“These are testing times for JEE aspirants as they were on the last lap of their preparation when the exam was postponed,” added Arvind Goyal, a city-based tutor.
Any last-minute delay and uncertainty about a competitive examination causes a lot of stress and anxiety for the aspirants who have been working hard for two years and are just waiting to get over with the exam, he added.
About the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical colleges, Goyal said, “The NEET-Undergraduate is scheduled for May 3. No official notification regarding postponement has been issued. If NEET is delayed by 10 to 15 days it will not have any impact on the session of medical colleges as the session anyway starts on 1st August and admissions continue till end August.”
“Due to the lockdown, we cannot conduct pen and paper mock tests which help students overcome the stress of the actual examination. The students have been given these tests at home. Online classes and tests attempted at home, however, can never compensate for classroom teaching and tests,” he added.
