Arya Shandilya of Begusarai in Bihar has been preparing for the NEET for the past three years. Yet she is not sure if she can take the exams next month. Arya’s exam centre is 140 kms away in Patna and two of her family members are corona positive.

Although Arya tested corona negative, but her doctor has advised her to stay at home as she could get infected. Out of the 38 districts in Bihar, only two districts have examination centres. To reach her centre in time for the exams, Arya may have to leave a day earlier and she is worried where she would stay overnight.

The government’s decision to hold the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for engineering and the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) for medical studies, despite there being no let-up in the Covid-19 pandemic, has upset parents, candidates and academicians across the country. Some states are also reeling under floods and reaching the exam centres could be a challenge for many living there.

Another candidate, Divya, lives in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and has to appear for JEE. His centre is situated far away from his home, which is in a flood affected area. Divya is worried about the pandemic and also the non-availability of transport to reach the exam centre.

JEE will be held across India between September 1 and 6 and NEET will be on September 13. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has said the dates are final and will not be changed. Union Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said 7.5 lakh out of 8.58 lakh candidates in JEE had downloaded their admit cards while 10 lakh of 15.97 lakh had downloaded for NEET. “It shows that students want that exams are held at any cost,” he said.

The NTA, which is responsible for organising the tests, said in case of JEE (Main), the number of shifts had been increased from eight to 12 and the number of candidates per shift had been reduced from 1.32 lakh to 85,000. Social distancing would be adhered to in all the examination centres and candidates were to be seated in alternate seats. Besides, all centres would be sanitised before the examination. All candidates, who would be required to wear masks and gloves, would be screened thermally.

The two eligibility tests are held every year during April and May. This year, these exams were initially postponed by the government due to the outbreak of the pandemic. However, now when the contagion is at its peak with the number of cases going up, the government has decided to conduct the tests ignoring more than one million tweets from students, parents and political leaders demanding postponement.

In a tweet, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi urged the government to pay heed to the students’ perspective about NEET and JEE examination.

BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy termed it as a ‘giant mistake’ having dire consequences as he believed the voting public possessed ‘long memories’.

Students and parents are worried not only because of the corona virus epidemic but also due to the lack of transportation facilities and prevailing floods. Students who had suffered or are suffering from COVID 19 are unable to prepare well for the exams due to trauma and requested that the exams be postponed till November.

Students have also asked for more examination centres. If that is done, Arya could take her exams at an easily accessible centre.

Shivangi is an intern with Gaon Connection.