NEET

NEET TWICE a year: Government hasn’t junked the proposal, says NTA chief

New Delhi:

Government is still considering the proposal to conduct National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the gateway to MBBS courses in India, twice a year, a recent media report has stated.

The report, published in the daily Indian Express has stated that confirmation to this effect has been made by the  Director National Testing Agency (NTA) Vineet Joshi who informed that the government is still considering the proposal

“We have received lots of communications from the students and teachers across the country and are, therefore, thinking of conducting it twice a year, like the JEE Main,” he told the daily.

Medical dialogues had eralier reported about the proposal that  had originated in the year 2018 when HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar announced the ambitious plan of conducting the medical and dental entrance exam, along with the Joint Entrance Examination – Main for admission to engineering colleges, twice a year by the newly-formed National Testing Agency (NTA).

National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), whose conduction earlier was the responsibility of the Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE) had consequently changed hands with the charge of conduction of this all India test falling on the shoulders of the newly formed National Testing Agency(NTA).

The proposal was being considered to help medical aspirants improve their scores the same year, unlike in the previous case, where a year-long wait was in store if any aspirant failed to do well in the NEET annual exam .

However, the Health Ministry later wrote to the HRD Ministry, raising concerns on conducting the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) twice a year as the examination calendar may put additional pressure on the students.

Following this, the plan which was initially slated to begin in 2019 was junked.

Now raising the topic again, NTA Director confirmed that the proposal has not been completely disregarded and is still under consideration.  The planning is at the initial stage and the exam authority will proceed only after receiving approval from the Ministry of Health, he informed. The daily also reports that the Health Ministry is considering the proposal.
If passed then the proposal will come into effect in 2021 and no changes will be there in 2020 timeline.