Top education new this week: The NTA announced exam dates for JEE Main (April and May) 2021, NEET-UG 2021. Several states announced class 10 board exam results and the UGC also released a fresh academic calendar for the 2021-22 session.
From decisions on the most coveted entrance exams to the gradual reopening of educational institutes across the country, the past week saw some major developments in the education domain. Here is a summary of what all happened this week:
Earlier this week, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the much-awaited exam schedule of JEE Main 2021 (April and May) 2021. The newly-appointed Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also announced the exam date for NEET-UG 2021. The JEE Main (April) session will be held on July 20, July 22, July 25 and July 27. The JEE(Main) 2021 session 4 will now be held on August 26. 27, 31 and September 1-2.
The gap between session 3 and session 4 of JEE Main 2021 has also been increased. “In view of the persistent demand from the student community and to enable the candidates to maximise their performance, the NTA has been advised to provide a gap of four weeks between session 3 and session 4 of the JEE (Main) 2021 Exam,” tweeted Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Newly-appointed Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced that the NEET-UG 2021 examination — the entrance test for admission in MBBS and BDS programmes — will be held on September 12. The application process for the examination began on July 13.
The Delhi University also announced that the admissions will be done based on merit and the varsity has decided to not hold CUCET this year. The admissions to its undergraduate courses for academic session 2021-22 will take place through cut-offs based on merit, like in previous years. Registration for UG courses will begin on August 2, and the last date to apply is August 31. Approximately 70,000 undergraduate seats and 20,000 postgraduate seats are on offer this year.
The University Grant Commission (UGC) also released the examination guidelines and academic calendar for the new session of 2021-22. As per the notice, the first-year classes will begin on October 1.
The commission has directed all the universities and colleges to complete the admission process for undergraduate and postgraduate courses by September 30. The classes for the first semester will begin on or before October 1. The last date to fill the vacant seats is October 31.
Meanwhile, several states decided to open up educational institutes in a phased manner as Covid cases are now decreasing in many parts of the country. The Karnataka government decided to reopen all medical and dental colleges with immediate effect in the state. Schools in Haryana reopened on July 16 after almost three months only for classes 9 to 12 on Friday amid strict COVID-19 protocols, with many students saying online education, although necessitated by the pandemic, is not a substitute to classroom teaching.
Recently, several state boards also released board results for class 10 and 12. Since exams were cancelled this year due to Covid, state boards evaluated students based on alternate marking scheme.
The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) released the class 12 results for the science stream. A total of 1,07,264 candidates had registered for the exam. A total 3, 245 students secured grade A1 whereas 15,284 students secured grade A2. As many as 466 students have secured more than 99 per cent marks in group A while 657 students secured more than 99 per cent marks in group B. The board has recorded a 100% result for the science stream this year.
The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Education also declared the SSC board exam results 2021. This year, the board recorded 99.95 pass per cent which is the highest the Maharashtra board has recorded for SSC results in the past 7 years. A total of 957 students received 100 per cent marks while 1,04,633 students received more than 90 per cent marks.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) opened the tabulation portal for the moderation of Class 11 and 12 theory marks. The tabulation portal is available on cbse.gov.in. The schools would be given time to moderate the scores uploaded as per the reference year data bank. The portal for moderation and tabulation will be open from July 16 to July 22. The board requested the schools to upload the marks as soon as possible for the board to declare the result by July 31.
Himachal Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (HPBoSE) class 10 and Kerala SSLC (class 10) result were also declared this week. The evaluation process for Kerala SSLC (class 10) papers began on June 7 for which 12,791 teachers were involved. As many as 4,22,226 students appeared for the exam of which the total number of students who scored an A+ in all the subjects is 1,21,318 while last year this number stood at 41,906.
