Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday expressed his opinion over the conduct of JEE and NEET Exams saying the government must listen to students seeking postponement of Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and National Eligibility Entrance Exam (NEET) scheduled to be held in September. The Supreme Court had earlier rejected petitions against holding the exams amid the coronavirus pandemic

In a tweet, Gandhi said the central government must to listen to ‘students’ ke mann ki baat’ and arrive at an acceptable solution.

He tweeted:

आज हमारे लाखों छात्र सरकार से कुछ कह रहे हैं। NEET, JEE परीक्षा के बारे में उनकी बात सुनी जानी चाहिए और सरकार को एक सार्थक हल निकालना चाहिए। GOI must listen to the students ki man ki baat about NEET, JEE exams and arrive at an acceptable solution.

Several other politicians have tweeted hashtags in the ongoing debates such as #SATYAGRAH_AgainstExamsInCovid and #StudentsKeMannKiBaat.

Manish Sisodia

Recently, the Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia also took to Twitter to voice his opinion on the issue. Asking the government to look at alternative modes of admissions, Sisodia wrote on Twitter that the approach of considering NEET and JEE as the only modes of admission is very narrow and impractical. As the educational institutes across the world are adopting newer ways for admission, why can we not consider them in India?

JEE-NEET की परीक्षा के नाम पर लाखों छात्रों की ज़िंदगी से खेल रही है केंद्र सरकार. मेरी केंद्र से विनती है कि पूरे देश में ये दोनो परीक्षाएँ तुरंत रद्द करें और इस साल एडमिशन की वैकल्पिक व्यवस्था करे. अभूतपूर्व संकट के इस समय में अभूतपूर्व कदम से ही समाधान निकलेगा.

The Supreme Court order has led an online campaign for postponing the engineering and medical exams – JEE Main and NEET – during the pandemic. On Twitter, several politicians have joined the debate under the trending hashtags #SATYAGRAH_AgainstExamsInCovid and #StudentsKeMannKiBaat.

The NTA, in an official statement, said that it has made “elaborate arrangements to sanitise the centres before and after the conduct of the exam, give fresh masks and hand gloves” to students. It has also issued an advisory regarding COVID-19 for all functionaries for centre managements which the NTA claims is based on MHRD’s guidelines. NTA also claims to have written to state chief secretaries, DGPs and other authorities to manage crowd inside and outside exam centre, ensure power supply and other facilities.

The debate raises crucial questions about the Indian educational system. It is in times like these that we truly realise what we lack, and what our renowned educational system lacks in sensitivity and flexibility. What is at stake here is the future of thousands of students who have spent very important years of their lives preparing for the exams which are now being conducting in challenging times like these. The question remains, is India still so traditional in thought and process of admissions that there is only one way of admission? And why can’t India adopt the newer ways of admission like other countries do?