Indian National Congress (INC) will hold a nationwide protest against the government’s decision to conduct of JEE Main and NEET UG 2020 exams amid COVID-19 pandemic, reports NDTV. The party announced that it will stage protests from 11.00 am today in front of central government offices at state and district headquarters, adds the report.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal issued a statement and said, “They will oppose the decision of the government to hold these exams during the pandemic. While holding exams during Covid crisis has put students in a state of extreme mental stress, the grim flood situation in states like Assam and Bihar will further put students from those states at a severe disadvantage.”
Earlier on Wednesday Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had convened a meeting of chief ministers of states ruled by opposition parties. Six states and a union territory decided to approach the Supreme Court against the conduct of the exams. Moreover, Tamil Nadu government ruled by AIADMK, an ally of BJP, has also requested the central government to delay the exam.
National Testing Agency (NTA), the body which conducts these exams, said that the exams are being conducted keeping in mind the interest of the students so that they do not lose an academic year. Any further postponement of exams will put students have government colleges at a disadvantage as private colleges have already started online module, said the agency.
Union Education Minister on Thursday said that the ministry has received number of emails from students and parents expressing their support for the conduct of the exam. He claimed that more students are interested in appear for the exams than those opposing but failed to cite any figures backing his claim.
Meanwhile, students and parents have been flooding the social media demanding postponement of the exams amidst the COVID-19 situation in India. Supreme Court has already allowed NTA to conduct the exam in September and the agency has released SOPs with regard to the COVID-19 precautions it has in place to safeguard the students.
Students have said that due to lack of adequate exam centres in some states will make it difficult to maintain physical distancing. Students have also said that some of them have to travel around 500 kilometres to reach the centre which will be difficult due to the lack of adequate means of commuting due to lockdowns in place.
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