NEET 2018: Bengali paper fiasco leaves examinees distraught

Kolkata: Medical aspirants who appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) on Sunday, are shattered as they could not properly attempt the questions. Most of the questions were reportedly full of errors or were ambiguous.

Many have, however, viewed this as an attempt by the Centre to abolish Bengali language and the students will not opt for Bengali as the medium of the examination in the

future years, if this trend continues.

In a startling revelation, this year around 3,000 students appeared for the examination in Bengali, while the figure in 2017 remained at 35,000. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts NEET.

There was also a question paper fiasco in the previous year, when the standard of the question paper in Bengali was much harder than that of English or Hindi. Many of the medical aspirants and their guardians had sought the intervention of the state government, stating that the state Education department must take up the issue with the Centre.

Rathin Mullick, relative of a medical aspirant, said that the state government must go to any extent to stop discrimination of medical aspirants on the basis of language, which occurred in Sunday's examination.

An expert in the field of medical education pointed finger at the BJP-led government at the Centre, saying that no one can hurt the sentiment of medical aspirants writing their paper in a vernacular language. It also cannot ignore the talented pool of students of the state, who appeared for the examination with Bengali as the medium.

It may be mentioned here that Bengali was selected as a medium of examination, after the state government had urged the Centre to choose Bengali as a medium of NEET, as a huge number of Bengali medium candidates appear in the medical entrance examinations.

The candidates and their guardians alleged that there were errors in the Bengali question paper of NEET, which was conducted throughout the country on 6 May. It was also stated that if this continues, no guardian will admit their children in Bengali medium schools.

"The state government should strongly deal with the issue, as it hurts the sentiment of the medical aspirants from the state. It should take up the matter with the Union Human Resources Ministry, so that from the next year, there is no error in the Bengali questions," Mullick said.

The exam was conducted at 99 centres across Bengal on 6 May, where around 59,000 candidates from the state were present. Altogether, over 13 lakh students across the country sat for the examination.