Kolkata: A city doctor has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to reconsider the decision of conducting the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) online twice in a year as it may put the medical candidates, particularly those opting for vernacular languages, in jeopardy.
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Amiya Kumar Maity, who was attached to SSKM Hospital, pointed out a number of issues which might cause difficulties in conducting the examination in a smooth manner.
Earlier this month, the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry announced that a newly formed National Testing Agency (NTA) would conduct the national- level examinations like NEET, JEE (Main), which were earlier organised by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
It also proposed that NEET would be conducted in February and May. The exam would be conducted in 11 languages across the country.
Dr Maity said it would not be possible for the newly formed NTA to conduct the NEET examination, which will witness around 14
lakh examinees.
The NTA has no adequate mechanism to conduct the examination without flaws.
Conducting such an examination across the country in various regional languages apart from Hindi and English is not an easy task. The NTA will conduct the exam next year for the first time ever, Dr
Maity maintained.
He also said that many of the medical aspirants in the state are from the rural areas where computer reach is not so high. The students do not have sound knowledge on computer use. In this context, many meritorious students from the far off areas would face difficulties while appearing for the
examination online.
He also urged the Prime Minister to take some steps so that exam can be held in two format like Preliminary and Main, so that a candidate can be judged on the basis of both the exams. According to the proposal by the HRD Ministry, a student can appear for the exam twice and his/her highest marks will be taken into consideration to determine his/her rank.
"There will be class XII examinations during February when the first segment of NEET exam is proposed to happen. As a result, many of the candidates will not be able to give extra effort for the national-level medical entrance examination," Dr Maity pointed out.
He also requested the PM to give an order to hold the NEET (UG) for the year 2019 in the offline mode as earlier, so that the NTA gets enough time to get ready with the online examination. He also urged the PM to take NEET (UG) entrance from the year 2020 onwards by online mode.