NEET, NET fiasco: Students, parents suffering Who is responsible?
| Date :24-Jun-2024 |
Principal Correspondent
While the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions to undergraduate health sciences courses continues, the Government has cancelled the National Eligibility Test (NET), an eligibility examination for teachers. As if that was not enough, the Union Health Ministry, on Saturday night, postponed the NEET for admissions to Post Graduate health sciences courses. Cancellation, postponement, mess of important competitive tests by the Government is making students suffer a lot. Who is responsible? Does anyone care of students’ mindset at all? Will dismissing the head of National Testing Agency (NTA) resolve the issue? The answer to all the three questions is a big ‘No’. Parents, students don’t want to know how the fiasco took place. They are worried about their future. Many students who wrote NEET (UG) and came out with flying colours are experiencing anxiety due to fear that the Government might cancel it. If that happens, then they have to appear for the test again and face the pressure. “Why should our wards suffer if some handful of students got involved in irregularities,” questions an angry parent.
Students prepare for four years for the examination and then they appear with a particular mindset, write the examination and crack it. Those who appeared in this year’s NEET feel that it would be difficult for them to appear again with the same tempo and score the marks. Some students told ‘The Hitavada’ on condition of anonymity they scored well since Class X, Class XII, and then they prepared for NEET with a focus for the past four years, studied 10 to 15 hours daily, and cracked it. “Some of us scored 100 percentile. It will be very much disappointing for us if Government re-conducts the test. For the last one and a half months we have not studied for the NEET as we were waiting for the admission. Some students at a few centres got involved in unfair means and we having to pay for that is unjustifiable,” a student said. According to some parents, it should be re-conducted only for the students who appeared at a few centres where the glitches came to the fore. Option can be given to the students of reappearance if they feel so. But it should not be conducted for all the students who have not involved in any irregularity.
Many parents called ‘The Hitavada’ to express their anguish over the decision of postponing the PG NEET, just a few hours prior. It was scheduled to be held on Sunday. Students prepared and were in a mindset of writing the same. According to the parents of the students the agency should have taken the decision of postponing it a few days earlier. It was NTA which had already scheduled the examination so they were aware of it. The last-minute cancellation has left parents and their wards helpless. Some parents said that if such things continued, the country might witness students committing suicide en masse. Noted Biology teacher Sameer Phale has suggested that NEET should be conducted afresh. “The irregularities have not taken place only at a few centres. After Bihar, Jharkhand, now cases have been found in Rajasthan, Gujarat and even in Maharashtra. There is a drastic surge in number of students scoring 100 per cent. Some students are surely honest and I don’t blame them. But a lot of irregularities are being noticed. Especially, NTA has made all mess. Earlier, CBSE used to conduct CET and it was doing it in a proper manner. NEET has witnessed such mess in 2015 too when paper was leaked. I justify re-holding of NEET because those who are brilliant will perform again, those involved in goof-up will suffer.”
According to Phale, Government should re-consider holding CET statewise for 85% seats and All India test for remaining 15% seats meant for all India quota. He also bats for the earlier system of admitting students on the basis of their score in Class XII. The issue of allotting grace marks too was not handled in a right manner, added Phale.
NEET came into existence about a decade ago with a remark by Supreme Court that there should not be multiplicity of tests. Though it did not give time to students to understand it, the process went on smoothly. It was the only test whose score was the basis to get admissions to health sciences courses. Later on, the Government set up NTA and holding all CETs was centralised. There are around 22 examinations including JEE, NEET, NET, etc, which are being handled by NTA. According to some experts, handling all CETs by one agency was not a right decision. Too much centralisation created unnecessary load on NTA leading to chaos.