Lakhs of medical aspirants across the country are waiting eagerly to know the dates of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for the current year.
The schedule of the CBSE final exams, as well as the JEE Main and JEE Advanced for the year 2021, has been already announced by Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’. However, the dates of NEET 2021 is yet to be known, keeping the medical aspirants on tenterhooks.
Earlier this month, Pokhriyal had hinted about conducting NEET twice a year owing to the request of students.
Several students have opened up about their concerns over the medical entrance exam and the delay on popular social media platforms like Twitter. Their worries mostly emanate from the academic schedule gone awry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that arrived in India almost a year ago.
Last year too, NEET was deferred due to the pandemic. Later, the National Testing Agency (NTA) conducted the NEET on September 13, 2020. More than 13 lakh students had appeared for the exam and a total of 7,71,500 candidates made the cut.
Last year, the test was offered in 11 languages - English, Urdu, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu.
The NEET is the gateway exam for admissions to undergraduate medical courses like MBBS and BDS in India. It is also the largest entrance exam in India based on the number of participants.