NEET 2021: Exam Date Likely to be Announced by Feb-end, Says NTA DG

NEET 2021: NTA Director-General Vineet Joshi said the NTA is in consultation with all the stakeholders, and taking into consideration all possible aspects in the best interest of students.

NEET 2021: As candidates are eagerly waiting for the announcement of exam dates for the prestigious medical entrance examination — National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) and the possible roll-out of a second attempt, NTA Director-General Vineet Joshi on Tuesday said the exam date will be announced by February-end or early-March.

Speaking to India TV Digital on delay in declaring the exam dates for NEET 2021, Joshi said there are a total of 28 boards, two ministries, and NTA involved in the brainstorming process, so the process is taking time.

He also added that the NTA is in consultation with all the stakeholders, and taking into consideration all possible aspects in the best interest of students. Moreover, he expected that a final decision on the exam date will be made by the end of February.

Earlier this month, he had said that the agency officials were in consultation with the Union Education Ministry and Health Ministry and was “hopeful” of announcing the NEET exam date “as early as possible”.

Prior to this, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had told India TV that the ministry was exploring all the possibilities of conducting the exam twice a year in the interest of students.

The NTA had also written a letter to the Union Health Ministry asking it whether the entrance test could be held twice a year, stating that the move would lessen the burden on students.

The NEET was held on September 13 last year after being postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, a total of 7,71,500 candidates had qualified for the exam, for which over 13.66 lakh appeared for the exam. Interestingly, the NEET was held in 11 languages — English, Urdu, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, and Telugu.