JEE (Main), NEET to be conducted twice a year from 2019 : Javadekar

From year 2019, students will get two chances to write JEE Main and NEET for admission to country’s top engineering and medical colleges, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar announced on Saturday.

JEE Main – the test required to qualify for admission to IITs will be conducted in January and April. National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical and dental colleges, will be held in February and May.

A National Testing Agency (NTA) has been set up to conduct JEE, NEET, UGC NET. These exams will be conducted online, Javadekar said. Till the current year, CBSE has conducted JEE Main and NEET.

The NTA was approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2017 as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation to conduct entrance examinations for higher educational institutions to bring in major reforms in the examination system.

“The National Testing Agency will conduct them this year. The same student can take the exam both times a year and the best score will be counted,” Javadekar said.

He said all examinations under the NYA will be online. “Computer centres will be set up where students with no access to computers can practise from August-end or September.”

But the IITs will continue to conduct JEE-Advanced.

The NTA will also conduct Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT) and Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) from the next year.

“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,” Javadekar said.

The minister said there would be no change in the syllabus, neither would the exam cost more than what it did earlier.

Published on: July 7, 2018 at 16:54 IST

By EP Web Desk/IANS