Over the last few days, there has been massive protests urging the government to postpone the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). Despite the Supreme Court rejecting a plea for postponement due to the COVID-19 outbreak on Monday, the call for delay had not died down.
Earlier on Friday, as protests continued, Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy had written to Prime Minister Modi. In his "urgent letter" Swamy opined that going ahead with the tests could "lead to a large number of suicides by youths around the country."
But it would seem that this too was to no avail, and on Friday evening, the Education Ministry has clarified that there will be no such postponement. Needless to say that social media is not happy.
Even as a few hailed the decision, others wondered how they would even reach the exam centres. As one user put it, with floods in multiple cities and districts across the country, and more than 2.9 million COVID-19 cases recorded thus far in the country, this wasn't the safest or most conducive environment for exams to be held.
According to the SOP released by the Ministry in the wake of the SC verdict, students will also have to submit an undertaking that they have not tested positive for the virus or that they have symptoms.
Take a look at some of the reactions:
