Amid the fear of COVID-19 outbreak and the uncertainties drove by the natural calamities, the students across India have been pushed to carry a burden of appearing for examinations at these hard times after the Central government went unlistened for the beseeches of the students in deferring the examinations. 

The students have demanded the center to postpone the examinations by citing the soaring cases of the COVID-19 viral infection, tight restrictions in the states with lack of transportation, mental stress braced by them, and the natural calamities including rainfall and floods in several states. The students took social media and collectively urged the Center to postpone the exams. 

The students have stood in line unitedly and taken their demands strongly to the center alarming that the proposed schedule of examinations had come at a bad time and they ought to get more burden amid the existing regulations and restrictions. Though the Center had provided the option to change the center, the students fear that the lack of adequate transport and connectivity would make them vulnerable and instill a huge challenge than examinations. 

Along with students, political leaders and activists had also pressed the Central government to defer the examinations. However, the Ministry of Education has, on Friday, signaled that there is no ground for postponement by announcing that the JEE -Main (Joint Entrance Exam) and NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) would be conducted in September as per the proposed schedule. 

By upholding the Supreme Court order, the Union Secretary of the Education said that JEE and NEET 2020 will not be deferred. According to the reports, the National Testing Agency (NTA) which is the supreme body of conducting and scheduling various national level entrance and qualifying examinations, has released the Admit Cards for the JEE main examinations. NTA said that it was able to offer the preference of center cities to 99.07% of students while 142 students have requested a change in their centers which the agency has been considering. 

On Friday, the NTA outlined the directive of the Supreme Court last Monday and said that it has no plans of postponing or canceling the JEE and NEET 2020 examinations. The Supreme court has passed the order when it heard the petitions moved by the students to defer the examinations owing to the outbreak. Last Monday -August 17, the Apex court bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said that the court can't let the careers of the students go peril by interfering with the examinations and said that precious years of students cannot be wasted. 

However, many students had protested on social media platforms against the center's decision of holding the exams and the parents also had demanded the center to defer the examinations. On Friday, the officials of the Ministry of Education had also said the national exams will be conducted as scheduled.  Earlier on Friday, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the Center must postpone the exams. 

In his letter, he said that he received information that states don't have sufficient facilities and infrastructure to ensure the safety of students for conducting the entrance exams and asked to conduct the exams after Diwali. He stated that he had spoken with Education Minister Ramesh Nishank on his request. However, hours after his request, the Education Ministry had stood at its stance of not going back. 

The reports stated that the NTA had already started its process to conduct the exams as per the schedule. The agency has finalized the safety protocol for conducting the exams and NTA had said 6,49,223 candidates have downloaded their admit cards as of Friday against a total of 8,58,273. It also said it has made extensive arrangements to disinfect the centers before and after the exams and provide fresh masks and hand gloves. 

As per NTA's schedule, the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main exam has been scheduled to be held from September 1 to 6 whereas the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) will be held on September 13. These exams are usually conducted between March and June every year and it was deferred for this year owing to the pandemic. By citing that it has made necessary arrangements and has written to states to install facilities, the NTA has conveyed its best wishes to the students who are going to appear for these examinations amid hard times. Students and activists have been trending the hashtag of #IndiaUnitedtopostponeJEE_NEET and #ResignNishankPokhriyal as they staunchly demand the postponement of exams and resignation of Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.