NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has recommended the National Testing Agency (NTA) conduct the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test for Undergraduates (NEET UG) twice a year. Navneet Singh, an AISU member, applied to the child rights body.
Navneet Singh, an AISU member, filed a CPGRAMS complaint with the commission. According to the complaint, holding NEET UG twice a year would help aspirants. Candidates can try again if they don’t get medical seats the first time. “This will save students from waiting for an entire year, and the students who will be able to obtain better marks will be granted enrollment in good medical colleges,” Dharmendra Bhandari, principal personal secretary to NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo, wrote to NTA.
Bhandari asked NTA to take appropriate steps and notify Singh in the letter dated May 9, 2023.
In March 2023, Bharati Pravin Pawar, minister of state (MoS) in the ministry of health and family welfare, told the Lok Sabha that there is no proposal to run NEET UG twice a year.
NEET UG: “Students under immense pressure”
On behalf of NEET UG applicants and their parents, AISU has requested that the National Medical Commission (NMC), union education ministry, and union health hold NEET UG twice a year.
NTA organises the single national-level bachelor medical entrance exam in 13 languages for admission to 645 medical, 318 dental, 914 AYUSH, and 47 BVSc and AH colleges in India. On Sunday, May 7, 20,87,449 medical students took NEET UG 2023 offline.
AISU noted that the existing method of conducting NEET UG only once a year puts “immense pressure on the students to perform well in a single attempt” and “leads to a high level of stress and anxiety among the students, which affects their mental health.”
AISU added that conducting NEET twice a year will be a “big relief for aspirants” and “will give the students a better opportunity to appear and prepare well for this exam,” and “candidates will have a better chance to secure coveted medical college seats.”
“After a failed NEET attempt, candidates either enrol in a course they don’t like and prepare for NEET the following year or drop a year to study and retake the exam. “With two attempts, they will be able to save an academic year and gain admission to the college and programme of their choosing,” AISU wrote in a letter.
“Changing the entire system, making it better for the students and medical fraternity,” AISU remarked of the twice-yearly NEET.
Like JEE Advanced, NEET UG
Another student group, All India JEE NEET Students Association (AIJNSA), has written to top medical colleges in India, including All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), asking their opinion on conducting NEET UG like JEE Advanced, the national-level exam conducted by Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) for admission to the 23 IITs in India.
“There have been many irregularities in the NEET UG conducted by NTA, including paper leaks, which have harmed many talented students. In light of these concerns. AIJNSA suggests that all top medical schools in India should administer NEET-UG like IITs do with JEE-Advanced. “We believe that conducting the exam through these institutes will ensure greater security, transparency, and fairness in the exam process and will prevent any future paper leaks or other irregularities,” AIJNSA added in its letter.
