After officials of the Ministry of Education reportedly discarded any possibility of postponement of the NEET-UG 2021 exam around a week ago, a new petition to delay the medical entrance exam has been submitted. Activist Sukhpal Singh Toor, Founder, NCR Parents Association has posted on his official Twitter handle today that representations have been submitted to the Ministry of Education citing a variety of adversities including the change in pattern, overlapping exam dates and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Activist Sukhpal Singh Toor has posted on his Twitter handle an excerpt of the petition which clearly shows that it is addressed to the Honorable Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan. The tweet read “Representation mentioning pattern change, exam clash, v.tight date sheet schedule, pandemic etc submitted to @EduMinOfIndia”.
Sukhpal Singh has gained significant popularity among the student community given his selfless efforts to postpone the NEET UG 2021 exam for the sake of the convenience of students. He also added to his tweet “As suggested by Ministry, will also submit to @DG_NTA soon. Let’s hope Govt looks into concerns ASAP”.
The NEET-UG 2021 exam was earlier scheduled to be held in August 2021. However, it was postponed and now, the exam is scheduled to be held on September 12, 2021. Replying to Sukhpal’s tweet, a student has posted a video explaining the adversities that they will be facing if the NEET 2021 exam is held on September 12, 2021.
Besides the obvious fact that the exam pattern of the NEET 2021 exam has been changed for which students are demanding additional time (by delaying the exam) for preparations, another concern is that there is little or no gap between the NEET 2021 exam date and other important entrance exams of national and state level.
The student has directly requested the Education Minister in her reply to Sukhpal’s post to delay the NEET 2021 exam by just 15 to 20 days. The pandemic has been a significant constraining factor as students were not able to attend classes, take coaching for the NEET exam and the very little learning that was effective was delivered only through online mode to those who could afford it.
Various other important exams are also being conducted in the same month of September 2021, adding to the difficulties of students. Three national level exams are being conducted within a week’s time. The ICAI AIEEA 2021 is scheduled to be held from September 07 to 09, 2021. COMEDK UGET is scheduled to be held on September 14, 2021. In addition, the exams for some papers of the Madhya Pradesh Board are also scheduled to be held during the same week.
The Supreme Court has said that the petition should be treated as a representation. However, it has rested the final call on the shoulders of concerned authorities.
