Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar has announced on Saturday that the national level engineering and medical entrance examinations will be held twice a year in online mode from 2019. The minister said that Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main and National Eligibility cum Entrance Examination (NEET) will be conducted by newly formed agency – National Testing Agency (NTA).
The Union minister also informed that apart from NEET and JEE Main, NTA will also conduct National Eligibility Test, Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) and Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT) exams from next year, adding that these competitive exams will take place on multiple dates. He said that JEE Main exams will be held in January and April while NEET will be held twice in February and May.
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According to Javadekar, though NTA will replace the current nodal agency – Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the syllabus, question formats, language and fees for the exams would not be changed. Adding further that the appearing candidates will be allowed to use the best score from the examinations in counselling process.
Addressing the press conference on Saturday, Javadekar said, “The exams will be more secure and at par with international norms. There will be no issues of leakage and it would be more student friendly, open, scientific and a leak-proof system. The NTA would benefit the students and they would have the option of going to computer centres from August-end to practice for the exams. The tests would be computer-based.”
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The Minister said that NTA will conduct the exams over a span of four-five days and students would have the option of choosing the dates, whose time table would be uploaded on the ministry’s website. However, IITs would remain to be the nodal agency to conduct Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced exam, he added.