New Delhi: On the coronary heart of the repeated examination paper leaks plaguing NEET-UG lies the protracted debate over shifting it from pen-and-paper mode to computer-based testing (CBT), and the alternative positions held by the Union training ministry-NTA and the Union well being ministry-NMC, regardless of the 2024 fiasco and a historical past relationship again to 2018.
ET has learnt that the problem was examined threadbare after the 2024 NEET-UG paper leak by a casual Group of Ministers, which ultimately concluded that shifting NEET-UG to CBT mode was vital. A goal of 2026 was set, protecting in thoughts the feasibility and logistics concerned. Nevertheless, these points couldn’t be addressed inside the deadline, ultimately ending up in one other leak and the primary full cancellation of NEET-UG, doubtless to be adopted by a June re-test.
Talking with ET, NTA director normal Abhishek Singh stated the company was already conducting JEE Principal in CBT mode and will do the identical for NEET-UG “if the well being ministry needs”.
Contemplating there was consensus on the GoM stage on shifting to CBT mode, and that the well being ministry had even lifted its objections in 2024 to conduct the NEET-PG check in CBT mode, its subsequent resistance to an identical format for NEET-UG signifies that reservations and variations between NTA and Nationwide Medical Fee continued.
The variations had been so important that the problem was not even taken up with the Ministry of Electronics and Info Know-how (MeitY) to work on a cybersecurity mechanism for such a plan, ET has confirmed. Appreciable work, nonetheless, was undertaken after 2024 on exploring a CBT-based NEET-UG format.
In accordance to post-2024 assessments, conducting NEET-UG in CBT mode for over 22 lakh college students would require over 20-30 shifts unfold throughout a month or extra.
The comparable examination carried out in CBT mode is the NTA-administered Principal, for which round 13 lakh college students seem yearly. JEE Principal is carried out twice a yr, with every phase unfold over almost 10 days with two shifts day by day.
Greater than 20 classes for NEET-UG are thought-about difficult by NMC, given the present observe of holding the check in a single day and single shift.
That aside, a CBT-based NEET-UG would require almost 20 completely different query papers, which sources stated can be a serious problem. For NTA, this might additionally imply upping its CBT testing capability significantly from the present 1.25 lakh college students it will possibly accommodate day by day – a goal that remains to be formidable.
It’s also pertinent that whereas authorities labored to replicate the profitable JEE Principal mannequin for NEET-UG, the problem turned additional entangled following a 2025 Supreme Court docket order on NEET-PG CBT, which held that the check must be carried out in a single-shift, single-day format.
Although the order made no direct reference to NEET-UG, the SC order appears to have helped strengthen NMC’s authentic place favouring the continuation of a single-day, single-shift pen-and-paper examination – a stance that had even been overruled by the well being ministry in 2024. The situation stays unresolved though officers underline that NTA’s said mandate is to conduct entrance exams in ‘online mode’.
The debate, in truth, dates again to 2018, simply months after NTA was established to take over entrance exams. Arguing in favour of the pen-and-paper format, NMC and the well being ministry had then cited the digital divide moreover cybersecurity challenges to a CBT check.
Actually, when the training ministry and NTA strongly pitched a biannual CBT format for NEET-UG in 2018, the proposal was opposed by the well being ministry citing that it might enhance strain on college students and drawback these from rural areas due to the digital divide.
Source link
#battle #move #NEETUG #online #India #losing
