The crucial National Entry and Eligibility Test (NEET) will be held across the country on Sunday amid tight controls in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), which is organizing the exam, has taken a number of steps such as increasing the number of test centers and reducing the number of students in a room to ensure that the coronavirus disease does not create any problems.
The NEET comes days after another prestigious exam, the JEE (Main), was held nationwide. Here are the things to know about how the NTA is conducting these exams:
• The number of examination centers has increased from 2,546 to 3,843 originally planned. The number of candidates per room has been cut in half, from 24 to 12 before.
See also | NEET 2020: Preparation in Exam Centers Amid Covid; minister wishes luck
• A total of 15.97 lakh candidates have registered for the exam.
• According to the NTA, test centers will guarantee staggered entry of students. Candidates have also received a set of instructions (or guidelines) on the dos and don’ts to achieve proper social distancing.
• All candidates have been asked to come to the examination centers with masks and disinfectants, but once they enter, students must wear the masks provided by the examining authority. “Each candidate will be offered a three-layer mask at registration and are expected to wear it during the exam to avoid any form of unfair means at the time of the exam,” said an NTA official. said by the PTI news agency.
• Make hand sanitizers available at the entrance of the exam center and inside the exam room at all times, replacing the process of verifying candidates’ admission cards with barcode scanners, increasing the number of test centers, alternate seating plans, fewer candidates per room, and staggered entry and exit are among the other steps the NTA has taken.
• The NEET, a paper-and-pencil based test unlike the JEE engineering entrance exam, has already been postponed twice in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The exam was originally scheduled for May 3, but was postponed to July 26 and then to September 13.
• Several students had protested calling for the exam to be postponed due to the pandemic, but the government opposed the measure. The students had also approached the Supreme Court with their lawsuit, but the Supreme Court dismissed their statement, saying that a “precious year” of students cannot be wasted and that life has to go on.
• Several opposition leaders, including Congressional Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, DMK Chairman MK Stalin and Delhi Chief Deputy Minister Manish Sisodia, had also demanded that this was postponed, as well as the JEE. However, their requests were dismissed by the Supreme Court.
.
