PMO asks HRD Ministry to roll back decision on online NEET for 2019

Kolkata: Responding to the letter of a city-based doctor regarding the implementation of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) online, the Prime Minister's office has directed the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry to roll back its earlier decision, at least for the next year.

The HRD Ministry had earlier announced the notification to conduct the exam online and twice a year. Prodded by the Prime Minister's office, the HRD ministry has now decided to conduct it as an annual pen-and-paper test in 2019.

Dr A K Maity, a city-based doctor, had written a letter to the Prime Minister on July 26, urging his intervention regarding the NEET issue, after the HRD Ministry announced the implementation of the new method.

Dr Maity said on Friday: "We are very glad to know that the PMO has responded to our request and directed the HRD Ministry to give an order to hold the NEET (UG) for the year 2019 in offline mode as earlier, so that the National Testing Agency (NTA) can get some more time to prepare for the online mode of the examination."

In his letter Dr Maity pointed out that it would have been very difficult for the NTA to conduct such a vast examination with such a short notice period.

"The PMO has taken a good decision to overcome the forthcoming crisis regarding NEET (UG) which the ministry had proposed to carry out online twice a year, in the year 2019. We are very much grateful to the Prime Minister for taking such an immediate action in this regard," Maity said.

"We further request the Prime Minister to instruct the appropriate authority to take expert opinions for conducting the NEET (UG) in a better way," he added.

It may be mentioned here that there were many errors in the translation of the Bengali version of the last NEET question paper. As a result, the medical aspirants who had opted for Bengali as the medium of examination had a dismal performance.

NEET is the national level medical entrance examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The Union HRD ministry had proposed a few months ago that NEET would be conducted by the NTA from the next year. Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar had later announced that the newly formed NTA would conduct the national level entrance examination. He also announced that NEET would be conducted in February and May.