NTA Issues Guidelines Ahead Of NEET And JEE Exams In September

New Delhi: The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday, issued an advisory for the students to appear for JEE and NEET exams in September.

This indicates that the central government may go ahead with the plan to conduct the national entrance exams for the IITs and medical courses despite the growing demand to postpone them in view of COVID-19 restrictions and floods in many states, reported NDTV.

JEE (Main) will be conducted for some 8.6 lakh students between September 1 and 6, while the NEET (UG) will be organised across urban centres for about 15 lakh students. Here are the guidelines issued by the NTA to safely conduct the examinations:

1. While NTA has made provision to accommodate symptomatic candidates, it has sought a self-declaration that candidates “do not have any coronavirus-like symptoms or suffer from COVID-19 or have not been in touch with anybody who tested positive recently”.
2. Candidates will be given a fresh three-ply face mask on entering the exam centre and asked to throw the old one.
3. Students appearing for the JEE, NEET this year, amid the coronavirus pandemic, will not only have to compulsorily wear a face mask and hand gloves but also carry a personal bottle of water and hand sanitiser to the exam centre – the location of which will be shared through a link days earlier. Their admit card will have detailed instructions on social distancing.
4. Entry to the exam centre itself will be staggered and students will have to clear a thermal scan for gaining access. However, each exam centre will also have “isolation rooms” for those candidates whose body temperature is above 99.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

However, these guidelines do not clarify whether candidates from containment zones would be allowed to write the examination as they may be asymptomatic and would have also come in contact with a COVID-positive person recently.