NEET-UG 2024: An Inescapable Challenge To PM Modi-led Union Cabinet 3.0
By
Nava Thakuria, New Age Islam
23 June
2024
As if the
controversy related to a nationwide entrance examination for selecting 10+2
standard students to get admitted in
government medical colleges across India was waiting for Prime Minister
Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet 3.0 to resume regular work. Just a few days
ahead of the first Parliamentary session, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA
government in New Delhi faced a serious allegation of mismanagements in a
centrally organised medical admission test, where nearly 2.4 million aspiring students participated.
Results of
the examination named National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate),
conducted by the Union government sponsored National Testing Agency (NTA) on 5
May, were declared on 4 June, 10 days ahead of initially announced. For reasons
best known to the NTA, the nodal agency preponed the declaration
of NEET-UG results coinciding with the vote-counting day of General Elections
2024, where the ruling BJP won 240 Lok Sabha seats (NDA secured 293 out of 543
election held constituencies) and the Congress succeeded in 99 seats where the opposition alliance got
togetherly 234 seats.
Soon after
the NEET-UG results came out, thousands of students across India hit the
streets alleging huge anomalies in the process. With the continued protest
demonstrations including in New Delhi, the students demanded to scrap the
current results and conduct NEET-UG 2024
once again. The families of medical
aspirants demanded that a high level probe under the monitoring of courts
should be announced to find out discrepancies and also punish the guilty
individuals under the law of the land. Several people were already arrested
from different parts of the country suspecting their roles in various
exam-related irregularities.
Suspicion
grew as many candidates topped the list of successful candidates with
additional marks, where 67 students
scored 720 (out of maximum 720 marks). Some students even scored unusual marks
like 718, 719 etc (which are otherwise impossible with the calculating system
of 4 marks for each correct answer and negative 1 for every incorrect response)
in the 200-minute long pen-paper test. A participant here needs to answer 180
questions based on regular subjects including Physics, Chemistry and Biology
(Botany & Zoology) taught in 11th
and 12th standard classes (endorsed by the National Council of Educational
Research and Training), where the candidate has to highlight the correct answer
out of four options.
Later it
came to light that 1,563 students were offered grace marks to compensate for
their time-loss during the exam procedures for any valid reasons. As the NTA (instituted by the central
government in 2017 with the mandate to conduct entrance and recruitment
examinations) admitted about offering the extra marks to some candidates,
severe criticism erupted in the media, why it was done without any
pre-announcement. Because the autonomous body had neither disclosed the
provision of extra marks in examination brochures nor divulged any criteria for
the same. Moreover, the premier agency has not revealed if it practiced the
same system in NEET-UG 2023 or any other tests.
This year,
the NEET-UG was organised at 4,750 centres in 571 cities across the country
which holds the key to around 0.18 million seats. An Indian 12th standard
student must sit and score high marks in the largest annual entrance examination
to get admission in government medical colleges (including All India Institutes
of Medical Sciences, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education
& Research, IMS-BHU, KMC (Manipal& Mangalore), CMC Vellore, etc) to
pursue various medical courses. Needless to mention that Indian medical professionals enjoy a heavy demand in
the healthcare institutions based in Europe and America.
Earlier the
process was completed by All India Pre Medical Test along with other entrance
tests conducted by State governments and different medical colleges for the
qualified students to pursue MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of
Surgery), BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery), BVSc (Bachelor of Veterinary
Science) and AYUSH-UG courses like BAMS
(Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery), BHMS (Bachelor of Homeopathic
Medicine & Surgery), BUMS (Bachelor of Unani Medicine & Surgery), BNYS
(Bachelor of Naturopathy and Yoga Science) and BSMS (Bachelor of Siddha
Medicine and Surgery).
The matter
has already reached the Supreme Court of India and the apex court directed to
erase the grace mark given to those students and go for a re-examination for
them (otherwise their original scores will be read as final marks). The highest
court on 18 June even observed that a minor error and 0.001% negligence must be
dealt with efficiently. The SC directed
the NTA and Union government to ensure a complete transparent assessment
considering the hard labour put by the students to prepare for the highly
competitive test. It also observed that a student, after playing fraud in the
examination becoming a professional doctor, will be more harmful to the
society.
Lately, the
NTA chief Subodh Kumar Singh has been replaced and a seven-member committee is
constituted to recommend on the functioning of NTA. The central government has
also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into irregularities
in the NEET-UG. Earlier, the UGC-NET was cancelled and the NEET-PG was
postponed. Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who initially denied
any serious allegations floated against the process, lately admitted that there
were some irregularities in conducting the NEET-UG and he assured no student’s
career will be in jeopardy. Taking the matter seriously, the newly empowered education
minister stated that the government will take stringent actions against the NTA
officials if found guilty of irregularities.
Various
organisations and opposition political parties including the Congress termed
the episode as a failure to the Modi government as it could not conduct the
important test fairly and they demanded to cancel the NEET-UG 2024 too. The oldest party of India plans a nationwide
protest on the first day's session of 18th Lok Sabha to raise voices against
the NEET discrepancies. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also questioned Modi's silence over the
issue. Citing the arrests by the police in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, etc., the
re-elected Parliamentarian asserted that it was an organised corruption
materialised in a planned manner.
Meanwhile,
Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA), a forum of nationalist citizens in
northeast India, posed a serious question, if the NEET can be assumed as a
quality mechanism to guess the intelligence of an aspiring student to become a
responsible physician in future and how a test comprising multiple choice
questions (MCQs) will justify an aspirant to get enrolled in medical courses ?
Finally, the PPFA asserted that it needs to be checked if the system has been
misused by a section of coaching centres to extract money from those desperate
parents, who want to establish their sons/daughters as doctors by any possible
means?
-----
Nava Thakuria is a northeast India-based
professional journalist who is an engineering graduate.
URL:
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism