Union Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday categorically said that it would be ensured that the standard of question papers in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) remains the same, no matter what the medium of the examination is.
The statement comes from the minister after there was an allegation that the standard of the NEET question paper set in Bengali was more difficult than that of the English and Hindi. As a result of which, Bengali medium students appearing for the national medical entrance examination were not properly judged. The number of Bengali medium students securing admission in various state-run medical colleges has gone down drastically this year following the introduction of the NEET which is the single level medical entrance examination.
Javadekar, who was speaking at the side lines of a programme organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) at a city hotel, said that from next year, the standard of the question paper in various languages will be the same to ensure all the students appearing the examination in various languages can be judged on equal grounds.
"From the next year, question papers in various languages will be the translations from just one language to the other and the question papers in English, Hindi or Bengali will be identically same. After seeing the success of the NEET, the ministry would examine the viability of introducing the same model in Engineering," Javadekar said.
When asked about the reintroduction of the pass fail system, the minister also said that the Centre is going to pass a Bill amending the Right to Education in the Monsoon Session allowing the state government to take their decision on the detention of students.
In the pass fail system, that the Centre has been proposing, a student would be given two chances to pass, with one being in the first
examination in March and the second one in June. If someone fails there, he/she will be detained in the same class. Another major change that the Centre is going to bring in is making the class ten board examination mandatory for all students.
"The Bills which will be passed in the forthcoming session will allow the state governments to take their own decision on the detention policy," the minister maintained.