With the sudden rise in COVID-19 cases in the country due to the second wave, all the entrance exams in the countries were postponed. The medical entrance tests were also postponed and it was decided that these exams will not be held before August.
Following the Union Education Minister's announcement regarding the dates of the JEE Mains entrance, several students on Twitter, had expressed their anxiety and urged the government to declare the status of the NEET-UG exam.
Ending the wait of thousands of the students, education minister announced the dates of the exam.
NEET PG 2021
The NEET postgraduate exam will be held on September 11, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced on Tuesday.
In view of a spike in COVID-19 cases, the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test-Post Graduate (NEET-PG) which was scheduled to be held on April 18 was postponed.
"We have decided to conduct #NEET Postgraduate exam on 11th September, 2021. My best wishes to young medical aspirants!" the minister tweeted.
On Monday, the Centre announced that the NEET-Under Graduate (UG) 2021 will be held on September 12 across the country while following COVID-19 protocols.
The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) in a notice said according to the announcement made today by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, "the NEET-PG 2021 has been rescheduled to be held on 11th September 2021".
"The examination shall be conducted in the morning session, from 09:00 am to 12:30 pm," it said.
The notice said 1,75,063 applications have been registered for NEET-PG this year and added that admit cards issued earlier for the examination on April 18 will be treated as "null and void".
Fresh admit cards shall be issued to already registered candidates, schedule for which shall be notified on NBEMS website.
In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBEMS has increased the number of test cities and centres for the NEET-PG 2021.
The test will be held in more than 260 cities at around 800 centres.
Candidates will be provided with protective face shield, face mask and sanitiser sachets at the test centres. The NBEMS will ensure Covid appropriate behaviour is followed at all times during the conduct of the test, the notice said.
"Candidates are advised to refer to the NBEMS notice dated April 9 for detailed instructions regarding adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour at test centres,"it said.
NEET UG 2021
In a first, medical entrance exam NEET-UG will be conducted in 13 languages with Punjabi and Malayam being the new additions, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced on Tuesday.
He also said that a new exam centre for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) has been opened in Kuwait to facilitate the Indian student community in the Middle East.
"Registrations for the NEET(UG) 2021 has started on http://ntaneet.nic.in from 5:00 pm today. For the first time in the history of NEET(UG) exam and in order to facilitate the Indian student community in the middle east, an examination centre has been opened in Kuwait," he tweeted.
"The NEET(UG) 2021 will be for the first time conducted in 13 languages with new addition of Punjabi and Malayalam," Pradhan said.
The languages which are now being offered are Hindi, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Urdu and English, he said.
The Minister had on Monday announced that the NEET which was earlier scheduled on August 1 will now be conducted on September 12.
The number of cities where examination is conducted will be increased from 155 to 198. The number of examination centres will also be increased from 3,862 used in the 2020.
Last year, it was conducted on September 13 amid strict precautions in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 13.66 lakh candidates had appeared in the exam of whom 7,71,500 qualified.
NEET MDS
The Supreme Court Monday took strong note of delay in holding the counselling for the NEET-MDS admissions for which exams were held on December 16, 2020, saying the Centre and others have been "dilly-dallying" for a year now.
A bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah, which had issued notices to the Centre and others including Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) on July 2 on the plea of nine BDS doctors, granted one week's time to the government for filing an affidavit.
"These are qualified BDS students. Why you have not held the counselling since last year? Can you imagine the loss to India? You are not allowing them the degree by not holding counselling.
"You have been dilly-dallying for a year. Tell us within a week as to when are you holding it," the bench observed during the hearing conducted through video-conferencing. Senior advocate Vikas Singh and lawyer Tanvi Dubey, appearing for the BDS doctors, referred to the plight of the dentists who had cleared the NEET-MDS in the exams held last year and are still waiting for the admissions in PG course.
Now the matter has been listed for hearing on July 19.
The doctors, having Bachelor in Dental Surgery (BDS) degree, had appeared in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-MDS conducted on December 16 last year by the National Board of Examination (NBE) for admission to the Master in Dental Surgery (MDS) course.
Besides the Centre and MCC, the bench had earlier also issued the notices to the Dental Council of India and the National Board of Examination (NBE).
The plea, filed through lawyer Tanvi Dubey, said that these doctors are challenging the "unjust and infinite delay" caused by the MCC in announcing the counselling schedule for NEET-MDS, 2021.
The plea also sought a direction to the MCC to conduct a separate counselling for the NEET-MDS 2021.
The results for admissions in PG courses for BDS candidates were also declared on the scheduled date, that is on December 31, 2020.
"However, after the declaration of the result, i.e., on 31.12.2020 until today i.e. 23.06.2021, there is no update regarding the counselling. It is most respectfully submitted that umpteen efforts were made by the Petitioners to get in touch with the Respondents in order to get an idea about the schedule of the counselling. However, there has been no update about the date of the commencement of the counselling," the plea said.
It said the dentists, who are also registered with state Dental Council, have obtained provisional or permanent registration and have also undergone compulsory rotatory internship of a year in an approved or recognised dental college.
"That around 30,000 BDS (dental) graduates appeared for the NEET-MDS conducted for admission to over 6,500 seats in the country and till date there has been no update for admissions in PG courses," it said.
INI CET 2021
Earlier scheduled to be conducted on June 16, AIIMS INI CET will now be held on July 22.
INI CET 2021 was originally scheduled for May 8 but was later postponed along with the NEET PG 2021, due to the pandemic. However, on May 27, the new dates were announced. The exam was then slated to be conducted on June 16, 2021.
However, 23 MBBS doctors had filed a petition in Supreme Court seeking postponement of the Institutes of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI CET 2021) which is conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The exam was then postponed again.
The apex court heard the petition and directed the AIIMS to postpone the exam at least by a month.
AIAPGET 2021
In the wake of rising COVID-19 cases, National Testing Agency (NTA) had postponed AIAPGET 2021 exam for three months in May. The All India Ayush Post Graduate Entrance Examination 2021 was scheduled to be held on June 7, 2021. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has not yet announced the exam date. The application form will be released on NTA's official website - ntaaiapget.nic.in
DNB PDCET 2021
The exam has been postponed following the recent COVID-19 curbs issued in different parts of the country. The exam was scheduled for May 9.
(With inputs from agencies)
