India Wide Parents Association (IWPA) has petitioned the MHRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to postpone the JEE Main 2020 and NEET 2020 examination. The association said that conducting the exams in September will put their wards’ at risk amid the worsening COVID-19 situation, reports careers360.com.

The exams for admissions for UG engineering and medical courses are scheduled to be conducted in the month of September and the association has demanded that the exams should be postponed for December 2020, says the report.

The letter to the MHRD said that the exams should be postponed during this unprecedented time to avoid any loss in the form of life or career. The group said that it has received complaints from parents and students across India over concerns regarding conducting the exam when the COVID-19 cases are rising.

The letter pointed at the lack of proper transportation for candidates to travel to the exam centre and lack of enough exam centres for the exam which would make it difficult to maintain proper physical distancing protocol.

The letter said, “Not everyone can afford to rent a cab to give the exams daily. Right now students are safe as they are at home,” says the letter. “The moment they will be exposed, chances of getting an infection are very high due to COVID 19 being airborne,” adds the report.

The letter also said students might have to travel hundreds of kilometres to reach the exam centre which might expose them to the virus and they might unknowingly become a carrier of the virus.

Talking about the number of exam centres, the letter cited Bihar as an example. The state has seven exam centres throughout the state for JEE Main where over a lakh candidates have registered to appear for the exam. The same state just has centres in two districts for the NEET exam. The letter questions whether physical distancing is possible with such low exam centre figures.

Around 25 lakh students are slated to appear for the JEE Main and NEET exam scheduled for September. The JEE Main was initially scheduled for April and NEET in May. The exams were initially postponed for July but due to the worsening COVID-19 situation, the exams were further postponed for September.