Edu Minister Defends JEE, NEET Exams By Citing Lakhs Of Admit Cards Downloaded, Students Ask What Options Do We Have?

Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal cited the number of admit cards downloaded as an indicator of the majority of students wanting the exams to be held. Students wanting postponement questioned him further.

Image Courtesy: Twitter/@ANI

New Delhi: Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has been defending the union government's decision to conduct the JEE-NEET exams amid Coronavirus situation despite the massive opposition put up by students through social media.  Speaking to news agency ANI, Ramesh Pokhriyal cited the number of admit cards downloaded as an indicator of the majority of students wanting the exams to be held. "National Testing Agency DG told me that 7.5 lakh out of 8.58 lakh candidates in JEE have downloaded admit cards. For NEET, over 10 lakh out of 15.97 lakh candidates downloaded admit cards in 24 hours. It shows that students want these exams to be held at any cost," - the minister said on Thursday. He further talked about the number of examination centres for JEE and NEET assessments being increased for the convenience of students. "JEE exam centres have been increased to 660 from 570 while there are now 3,842 NEET centres, up from 2,546 for the convenience of students. Students have also been allotted exam centres of their choice,": Ramesh Pokhriyal, Union Education Minister. The rationale of admit cards downloaded, however, is not going too well with people who continue to oppose the exams. Many students have asked what other options do they have when authorities are not listening to the nationwide demand for postponement. Here Are Some Reactions To The Statement

You know what coaching institutes took the application numbers and details of each student of their institute in December already. Now they would have downloaded their admit cards. Who knows? Where is the proof that students want to appear in the exam??@Swamy39 @VKVishnoi2

— Richa Soni (@reveuricha) August 27, 2020

Downloading admit card doesn't mean willingness to give exam, it's just one of the worst excuse given by government. By this logic lakhs of students had already downloaded cbse exam admit card then why you cancelled it in March.Mine Cs paper was cancelled. pic.twitter.com/97QgxtmSkH

— Qwerty (@Qwertyxyzp) August 27, 2020

No, it just means they downloaded their admit card with the presumption that they may not be able to download it later

— Aamir Siddiqui (@aamirXDA) August 27, 2020

One more counter point. If you increase price of petrol people will buy it even then. But it doesn't mean that they are happy. It's just our vulnerability

— Qwerty (@Qwertyxyzp) August 27, 2020

Meanwhile, Directors of several Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have also supported the exams to be held as per schedule stating that further delay in conducting medical and engineering entrance exams NEET and JEE will lead to a 'zero academic year' and any quick alternative to the crucial exams will dilute the quality of education and have cascading effects. The IIT Directors appealed to students to trust the institutions conducting the exam. The National Testing Agency (NTA) released the admit cards for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) admit cards. The testing agency announced it in a notification confirming the exam dates on Tuesday. WATCH | Will JEE-NEET exams be conducted on scheduled dates despite protests? | Namaste Bharat