Top officials from the Union health ministry and the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences on Monday reviewed the process of the NEET-PG exam, two days after the entrance examination to postgraduate medical courses was postponed.
Amid controversy over alleged discrepancies in the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test - Under Graduate (NEET-UG) 2024 medical entrance exam, the Centre last week postponed the NEET-PG (postgraduate) examination as well, sparking further outrage among candidates and Opposition political parties who are seeking action and answers on the paper leak issue.
Top officials from the Union health ministry and the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences on Monday reviewed the process of the NEET-PG exam, two days after the entrance examination to postgraduate medical courses was postponed.
The National Eligibility Entrance Test-Postgraduate (NEET-PG) entrance examination is conducted by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), along with its technical partner Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), for medical students.
NEET-PG exam is conducted to determine eligibility of candidates for admission to postgraduate medical programmes in government or private medical colleges, such as Doctor of Medicine (MD), Master of Surgery (MS), PG diploma, Diplomate of National Board (DNB), Doctorate of National Board (DrNB), and NBEMS diploma.
Candidates studying in India, having a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree or provisional MBBS pass certificate as per the Indian Medical Council Act, and MBBS registration certificate issued by the Indian or state medical council and have completed one year of internship or will be completing the internship, are eligible to apply for the exam.
While controversies were already raging over not just NEET-UG, but also other big examinations in the country such as UGC NET, the Ministry of Health on June 22 decided to review the process of conducting the NEET PG examination and announced postponement of the test a day before it was scheduled to take place.
"Taking into consideration, the recent incidents of allegations regarding the integrity of certain competitive examinations, Ministry of Health has decided to undertake a thorough assessment of the robustness of processes of NEET-PG Entrance Examination, conducted by National Board of Examination for medical students," a press release said on June 22.
"It has accordingly been decided, as a precautionary measure to postpone the NEET-PG Entrance Examination, scheduled to be held tomorrow i.e. 23rd June, 2024. Fresh date of this examination will be notified at the earliest," the press release stated.
The next date of NEET PG is likely to be announced this week, reports said. NBE president has reportedly said that decision on the exam date might be taken this week.
“We should be able to decide the exam date by this week,” Times of India quoted Dr Dr Abhijat Sheth, National Board of Examination (NBE) president, as saying.
The Monday meeting between health ministry, the NBE and TCS was held to check the "robustness" of the system for the conduct of the exam in the coming days, sources said. It was learnt that the TCS top brass briefed about the various aspects of the exam procedure that is followed in the meeting.
"The process of uploading the NEET-PG exam paper starts an hour before the exam is to be held. This time it was postponed as a preventive measure to ensure the exam is held in a transparent and secure manner. New dates will be announced soon depending upon the availability of centres," news agency PTI quoted a source as saying.
"Ministry of Health sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to the students. This decision has been taken in the best interests of the students and to maintain the sanctity of examination process," it said.
In a video shared by news agency ANI, a NEET PG candidate Sunanda Pansari slammed the government for not thinking about students before taking such a decision.
She said she travelled 600 km to attend the exam.
“This is extremely wrong. I have travelled 600 km to attend the exam. The exam was scheduled for March after which it for postponed to July. Later they postponed their exam and now they have postponed the exam again. We should have been informed at least 24 hours before. There is no information on the paper leak as of now,” she said in the video," Sunanda Pansari said.
Taking to microblogging platform X, a surgeon Dr Abbas Ali, also condemned the central government's move to postpone the exam at a short notice and termed it "insensitive".
“Some people are saying this #NEETPG delay gives you more time to read & revise, but there’s more to life than just exams. Lots of people have had to postpone important life events for this, and the delay seriously affects their Mental health. Don’t be so insensitive,” he said.
The postponement of the NEET-PG exam came amid a raging controversy over the NEET-UG exam, which is a medical entrance examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). NEET-UG is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
The NTA conducted the medical entrance test NEET-UG on May 5 across 4,750 centres across the country and around 24 lakh candidates appeared. A row triggered after results
The row erupted after results were out on June 4 and as many as 67 students scored a perfect 720, unprecedented in the NTA's history, with six from a centre in Haryana's Faridabad figuring in the list, raising suspicions about irregularities.
There was also a controversy over grace marks awarded to students to make up for the loss of time at six centres. The Centre later told the apex court that the grace marks were being scrapped and these 1,563 students would be given an option of a retest.
In an optional retest held for 1,563 students whose grace marks were scrapped after the matter reached the Supreme Court, only 813 appeared on Sunday.