This year’s Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced for admission in engineering colleges across India will now be conducted on 23 August, Union Human Resource and Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank announced on Thursday (7 May), ANI tweeted.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Minister had announced the dates for the JEE (Mains) examination to be held from 18 to 23 July and medical’s NEET which will be conducted on 26 July.

The admit cards for the registered candidates will be released soon, which will have details of the exam centre, exam city, and session of the exam. The admit cards will be released by the exam conducting agency, National Testing Agency (NTA).

While addressing a webinar on Tuesday, he had also said a decision would be taken soon regarding the schedule of board examinations of class 10 and 12.

There has been a widespread dilemma among thousands of students across the country over the dates of various examinations which had been postponed due to the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

The NTA had earlier deferred the JEE (Main) 2020 which was to happen on 5,7,8, and 11 April to the last week of May.

The exam conducting agency, however, had not specified a date.

According to the NTA, over 9 lakh candidates have registered for JEE Main, while over 15.93 lakh students are likely to take up the NEET 2020 exam.

Educational institutions across the countries have been closed since 16 March after the central government imposed a classroom shutdown to contain the COVID-19 spread. And with the announcement of nationwide lockdown on 24 March, the shutdown has been continued ever since.