A virtual meeting of seven chief ministers, called by Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi to discuss the intensely-debated NEET, JEE exams in the time of COVID 19, on Wednesday called for all states to come together and move the Supreme Court to defer the exams to be held in September.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee floating the idea said, “This will be my request to all state govts, let us do it together, let us go to the Supreme Court and postpone the exam for the time being until and unless the situation allows students to sit for exam (JEE/NEET).”

Banerjee had earlier written two letters to PM Modi seeking an intervention to postpone the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). The JEE (Main) is scheduled to be held between September 1 and 6 while the JEE (Advanced) on September 27. The NEET will be held on September 13. The exam was originally scheduled to be held from April 7-11 but was postponed twice due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh speaking at the meeting said, “I agree with Mamata ji that we should collectively see PM.” This idea of putting off the exams was also supported by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who said, “There was a report from the US that about 97,000 children were infected by #COVID19 when schools were opened. What will we do if such a situation arises here?”    

Speaking on the issue, Sonia Gandhi said that student’s problems were being dealt with ‘uncaringly’. “Announcements such as those related to the National Education Policy should really worry us as it is actually a setback. Other problems of students and exams are also being dealt with uncaringly,” the Chief Minister said.

The Supreme Court, earlier dismissing a plea seeking postponement of the exams, said the precious year of students “cannot be wasted” and life has to go on amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Despite an overwhelming demand by students to cancel the exams, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has made it clear that the exams will not be postponed. He said that the decision to hold the entrance exams for engineering and medical courses was taken amid constant pressure from the parents and students.

Students have pointed out reasons such as difficulty in travelling in the absence of public transport, inability to arrange lodging since hotels and guest houses continue to remain shut and risk to already unwell students as reasons for seeking deferment of the exams.