Students demand postponement of medical entrance test

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru:

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) undergraduate examination 2022 is expected to be held on July 17. When the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the NEET dates for this year, many aspirants of NEET raised their concerns and asked for more time to prepare for the exam.

The students have been protesting against NTA’s decision on social media platforms. Therefore, #modijiextendneet #PostponeNEETUG and #JUSTICEforNEETUG hashtags have been trending on Twitter. Many students show concern that they have been given less time to prepare.

NEET UG is a medical entrance examination for undergraduate admission into various medical colleges across India. So students feel they want to give their best shot. “Last year I didn’t give NEET so that I could prepare well. Last year, the entrance exam was in September. So we expected the same for this year. Those who dropped out of the NEET exam, got only ten months to prepare, and many students feel they have been cheated. I don’t want to lose another year because of a few days,” said Aditi Belgaumkar from Bengaluru.

Other NEET aspirants are also concerned about the clashing dates of CUET UG 2022 and NEET UG 2022 as the NTA announced the former will also be held on July 17. The aspirants must leave one exam to appear in the other one.

Students are saying that this could affect their performance as many of them will appear in both exams. “I have applied for both CUET and NEET, both of them have different types of question patterns. I can’t seem to focus on one thing,” says Anjali, another MBBS aspirant. Students are desperately demanding a postponement of the exam by at least 40 days and are trying to get the attention of the government.

The aspirants are raising their concerns on Twitter in hope that they might be able to draw the attention of the NTA, which might decide to postpone the exams. "Delaying NEET-UG for a few days will not affect the ongoing session or the new session as it is declared to start before Feb 2023. Droppers also need a fair chance. #JUSTICEforNEETUG,” a student posted on Twitter.

The latest campaign on Twitter is in a bid to get the attention of the government and convince them to reschedule the NEET-UG exam. Similar efforts were undertaken by students writing the NEET-PG exam and their demands went unheard.

The Wide Parents Association also wrote a letter to the prime minister about the students' concerns. The letter stated that in some states, board exams are still being conducted; this gives students no time to prepare for the NEET entrance.

Majority of students prepared for exam:

Union minister While speaking at the India Today Education Conclave in response to a question regarding NEET UG postponement, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that a majority of students are already prepared for the exam.

When asked about the NEET UG postponement at a conclave, Dharmendra Pradhan said, “Students are always anxious. All our senior principals are here, educationists are here; they face this problem every month.” He further said, “Every month there is an evaluation, every month there is an examination, students come to them, ‘madam this not done, I have not prepared, please extend that.”

“They are facing it every month, I am facing it annually,” the union education minister added. When further asked if there would be no postponement, he replied, “I think, the majority of students have already prepared to face the exam.”

National Students Union of India (NSUI) National President Neeraj Kundan had also written to the minister for the postponement of NEET-UG 2022.