News Analysis India

Tag: NEET

  • COVID: Pending editions of JEE-Mains likely in August, NEET may be postponed to September

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Education is contemplating conducting pending editions of engineering entrance exam JEE-Mains in July and August while the medical entrance exam NEET can be shifted to September, according to sources.

    However, a final decision in this regard is yet to be taken and the Ministry is in process of reviewing the COVID-19 situation across states and UTs.

    “The pending editions of JEE-Mains are likely to be conducted either at the end of July or August with a fortnight’s gap between the two tests. NEET is likely to be pushed to September,” a source said.

    From the current academic session, JEE-Mains is being conducted four times a year to offer flexibility to students and a chance to improve their scores.

    The first phase in February was followed by the second phase in March, while the next phases were scheduled for April and May.

    But those were postponed after an exponential rise in the number of COVID-19 cases during the second wave of the pandemic in the country.

    The JEE-Advanced exam, which is conducted for admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology and the National Institutes of Technology, was also postponed.

    The exam was scheduled on July 3.

    While no further decision was taken on NEET-UG which is scheduled on August 1, the registration for the exam, which was supposed to commence from May 1, was kept in abeyance.

    The ministry is also yet to decide on the fate of the Central University Common Entrance Test (CUCET).

    Earlier this month, the CBSE cancelled class 12 board exams in view of the pandemic and has announced a marks tabulation policy.

    Following the same route, the CISCE and several state boards also cancelled the same exams.

  • Decision on pending entrance exams JEE, NEET soon: Ministry of Education

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Education is expected to soon decide on conducting the two remaining editions of the engineering entrance examination JEE-Mains and the medical entrance test NEET in August, according to officials.

    “The situation is being reviewed to decide on the schedule of the pending editions of JEE-Mains and whether NEET-UG can be conducted on August 1,” a senior official said.

    From the current academic session, JEE-Mains is being conducted four times a year to offer flexibility to students and a chance to improve their scores.

    The first phase in February was followed by the second phase in March, while the next phases were scheduled for April and May.

    But those were postponed after an exponential rise in the number of COVID-19 cases during the second wave of the pandemic in the country.

    The JEE-Advanced exam, which is conducted for admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology and the National Institutes of Technology, was also postponed.

    The exam was scheduled on July 3.

    While no further decision was taken on NEET-UG, the registration for the exam, which was supposed to commence from May 1, was kept in abeyance.

    The ministry is also yet to decide on the fate of the Central University Common Entrance Test (CUCET).

    The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday announced the marks tabulation policy for the Class 12 exams, which were cancelled on June 1 in view of the Covid situation.

    The schedule for the subsequent entrance examinations is expected to be decided soon.

    According to the policy decided by a 13-member panel set up by the board, the theory paper evaluation formula is that a 30-per cent weightage will be given to the marks obtained in Class 10, another 30-per cent weightage to the Class 11 marks and a 40-per cent weightage to the Class 12 marks obtained in the unit test, mid-term and pre-board exams.

    The CBSE scheme further elaborated that for Class 10, the 30 per cent marks based on the average theory component of the best three performing subjects out of the main five subjects will be taken.

  • Medical entrance exam NEET for under graduate admissions on August 1

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to undergraduate medical courses will be conducted on August 1, the Ministry of Education’s National Testing Agency (NTA) announced on Friday.

    “The NEET (UG), 2021, is going to be conducted by NTA for admission to MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BSMS, BUMS and BHMS courses as per the relevant norms, guidelines and regulations notified by the regulatory bodies concerned.

    “The exam will be conducted in 11 languages, including Hindi and English, through pen and paper mode on August 1,” the NTA said in an official notification.

    Bulletin containing detailed information regarding the test, syllabus, eligibility criteria for age, reservation, categorisation of seats, examination fee, cities of examination, state code will be available shortly when the submission of the application form for NEET (UG) starts, it added.

  • Time for single NEET exam again, will be pen-and-paper affair

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test would be conducted only once this year and it would be a pen-and-paper affair.

    An earlier proposal to hold an online test twice for admissions to medical and dental colleges would not be implemented this year.

    The decision follows a meeting between officials of the Union health ministry and the National Testing Agency, the nodal body tasked with conducting NEET, on Wednesday last.

    Stating that the decision not to tinker with the test pattern was taken to ease the pressure off students reeling under the pandemic, an official said: “An online test may also prove disadvantageous for the students from rural areas.”

    The NTA would release the examination schedule and brochure in two-three days after a final date is decided.

    The test is likely to be held either in late June or July.

    Earlier, after deciding to hold the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) for engineering admissions four times this year, officials had proposed to conduct NEET twice for the first time to ease the pressure to perform their best in one attempt off students.

    The proposal was approved by the medical education department of the health ministry but now may be implemented starting next year.

  • Health Ministry gives nod, NEET to be conducted twice this year 

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Starting this year, the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) will be conducted twice as the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has given a green signal for the same, paving the way for the examinations to be organised on the lines of the Joint Entrance Examination (Main).

    The examination schedule for the test — the entrance examination for medical, dental and several other related institutions — however, is still to be finalised.

    Health Ministry officials said in a recent meeting with their counterparts in from the Education Ministry and the National Testing Agency — which has been organising the test since last year — issues including online and offline modes of examination and multiple sessions were discussed.

    “While we felt that a large number of NEET aspirants still may not be ready for appearing in the examination in online mode, there is now a consensus on conducting the test twice this year,” said a senior official in the medical education department of the Health Ministry.

    The twice a year format will allow students to be ranked on the basis of the best of the two scores if they take the test twice. The same format had been adopted in JEE(Main) since last year.

    “The idea is to reduce the stress on the students and allow them to better their scores,” another official in the NTA said.

    Last week, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, in an interview to a TV channel, had said that officials from his and health ministry had interacted recently and there is a possibility of the exam being conducted twice with giving students an additional attempt being actively discussed.

    NEET, usually conducted in the first week of May every year, had been pushed to September last year amid strict precautions in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The NTA is yet to publish the dates for the test this year, in which over 10 lakh students appear despite its dwindling popularity over the years and rising number of MBBS seats.

  • Two arrested in Indore for cheating NEET aspirants of Rs 5 crore

    By ANI
    INDORE: Indore Special Task Force (STF) arrested two people for allegedly cheating National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) aspirants of Rs 5 crore on the promise of securing them MBBS seats, a police official said on Sunday.

    As per Manish Khatri, Superintendent of Police, STF, the two accused arrested from Mumbai, had cheated multiple people in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

    “One Ajay Kumar Jain filed a complaint in January 2018 that the two accused had cheated him of Rs 19,70,000 under the guise of securing a seat for his daughter in a government medical college. We had filed a complaint and the investigation was on. We received information that the accused were in Mumbai and sent a unit there to arrest them. Both the accused have been arrested,” he said

    The SP said that during the course of the investigation, one more person lodged a complaint against the same accused whom he allegedly cheated of Rs 13 lakh.

    “They have also cheated people in Rajasthan. Prima facie, it seems that they have cheated people of around Rs 5 crore. We have taken them into custody and are investigating the case. They had one more accomplice whom we were searching for and found that he’s serving a sentence in a Punjab jail in another case. We are also trying to take him on remand,” Khatri added.