Around 14-15 lakh medical aspirants are eagerly waiting for an official update on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) UG 2021. Earlier this year, National Testing Agency (NTA) announced that it will hold NEET 2021 on August 01, 2021. However, we are halfway through July and even the registration for the exam has not started.
While NTA and the Ministry of Education (MoE) are tight-lipped on the matter, speculations regarding NEET 2021 postponement/cancellation are marking rounds every now and then. It is now clear that the national level medical entrance exam will not be cancelled. However, the possibility of postponing NEET is increasing day by day.
These are the 7 major reasons which ensure that NEET 2021 will be postponed and will not be held on the decided date.
#1. Exam date clashing with JEE Main 2021: On July 06, 2021, MoE announced that NTA will be holding JEE Main phase 3 and 4 in July and August. The exam date for JEE Main phase 3 exam is July 20 to 25 but the phase 4 exam will be held between July 27 to August 2, 2021. If phase 4 is held on these dates that there is no way that NTA can conduct NEET on August 01, 2021, as well.
Two of the biggest national level entrance exams cannot be held side-by-side unless the government of India creates a master plan to accommodate such huge number of students. Also, there are students who opt for medical and engineering entrance exam and their exam dates might clash.
#2. Recent notice by NTA hinted postponement: Recently, NTA released a circular to alert students about a fake NEET exam date notice. This notice was circulated on social media and states that the exam will now be held on September 05, 2021. NTA was quick to respond and made it clear that the notice is fake.
However, the same circular also said, “The NTA is still in consultation with the Stakeholders for finalizing a suitable date for the conduct of NEET (UG) – 2021, keeping in view the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic”. This is one of the major and most recent official hints, indicating that the date of holding the exam is under discussion and might change.
#3. Application form and details not released yet: Usually, the application form of NEET is released in November and then the exam is held next year in May. However, owing to the pandemic, it was obvious that registration for NEET might delay. Yet, no one thought that the registration process will delay to such an extent.
When NTA announced that it will hold of the exam in August, it was expected that the application form will release by June or July 2021. The official website for NEET, neet.nta.nic.in, started working in March and displayed that the application form will be released soon. However, now that message has been removed and there is no indication of when the registration will start.
#4. Pandemic and lockdown a huge hurdle: Though the pandemic situation has become a bit better since March-April, yet, it is not very suitable. Even right now there are states that are continuously extending lockdown and are struggling to keep the number of cases in check. Given this, holding JEE and NEET together at a national level will be a task.
#5. 100% Vaccination not done: Though the government of India has started the vaccination process for 18+ but the data of students who have got the vaccine is very unclear. The same is the case with teachers and staff.
Apart from this, there are students who are 17 years old and are not eligible for vaccination. Taking an exam will be risky for all of these students and staff.
#6. Possibility of COVID 3rd wave: As per reports, there are predictions that the nation might be hit by the 3rd wave of COVID in August-September. However, there is no absolute proof for this theory but the possibility of it cannot be denied.
#7. NEET 2021 as an offline exam might be risky: If NEET is held as an offline exam in which nearly 14-15 lakh students will appear and some of them will be unvaccinated then the exam will surely become the reason for the 3rd wave. Also, it has been made very clear that NEET will not be held as an CBT or proctor test this year. Hence, offline exam is the only option.
The only reason why NEET 2021 will not be postponed is that the postponement will cause delay in admissions and even the next academic session. However, the possibility of not postponing NEET seems trivial when compared to the above given 7 reasons.
Looking at all of these reasons, the government is expected to postpone NEET 2021. As per newspaper reports, NTA has prepared a blue print to hold the exams and is planning to postpone NEET 2021 exam date, somewhere in September.
The final verdict on NEET UG 2021 exam is expected to out soon.
What are your views? Do you want NEET 2021 to be postponed or do you want the exam to be held on the due date? Let us know your thoughts below.
