Candidates have been bombarding Twitter with incessant tweets, urging the Ministry of Education to postpone the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) UG 2021 examination. The exam must be postponed by a week or two due to a clash with several other exams. Students are using various hashtags to get the attention of authorities, the predominant hashtag being #shiftNEETUG.

Today, August 26, 2021, the National Testing Agency (NTA) conducted the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2021 session 4 exams. Due to this, the hashtag #JEE Main2021 was trending on Twitter for a while. NEET UG 2021 aspirants even used this hashtag, urging the ministry to postpone the entrance test. As of now, the medical entrance test is scheduled to be conducted on September 12, 2021.
During the period from September 04 to September 20, 2021, a total of 12 exams are going to take place. Here are some of the exams scheduled during this period –
# CBSE Chemistry Class 12 board exam (for improving marks) – Sept 06
#Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) AIEEA UG exam – Sept 09
# CBSE Physics Class 12 board exam (for improving marks) – Sept 09
# NEET UG 2021 exam – Sept 12
# Madhya Pradesh (MP) Board Biology Class 12 board exam – Sept 13
# CBSE Mathematics Class 12 board exam (for improving marks) – Sept 13
# Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) 2021 – Sept 06 to 18
# Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT CET) – Sept 04 to 20

All these exams are scheduled around the same time and hence, candidates are finding it difficult to manage their schedules. According to some students, entrance exams like NEET 2021 must not be conducted between board exams. Others state that out of the exams scheduled between September 04 and 20, 2021, students might be giving 3-4 exams.
Juggling between multiple exams will not be an easy task. Moreover, centres for each exam are also different, adding to the ruckus and stress. Invariably, such chaos will affect the candidate’s overall performance in NEET 2021. To counter this chaos, students are urging the ministry to postpone the exam by a week or more.

There is, however, another side to the NEET 2021 exam schedule. The education ministry had announced the entrance exam date after considerable wait and delay. Already, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NEET 2021 exam was postponed from May to September 2021, causing a delay in the academic year 2021-22. Any further delay in the exam will prove detrimental for the students. With all these facets in mind, it’s up to the education ministry to take a call.