Ministries of Health, Education to resume discussion on conducting NEET twice a year

The Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education are all set to once again resume discussion on conducting NEET twice a year.

There has been a long-standing demand to conduct National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) twice a year and the Union Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also discussed this matter earlier but had not reached any conclusion during the discussion. The matter was earlier discussed under the leadership of the former minister of education, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Now, as per the reports, the Union Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education will soon resume discussion on conducting NEET-UG twice a year. The ministers who participated in the talks earlier are also changed now and when this meeting will be held is yet to be disclosed.

The demand to conduct the entrance examination more than once a year gained momentum after the Education Minister announced four attempts for JEE(Joint Entrance Examination) in a year. Also, the huge amount of stress of medical aspirants to clear the examination got highlighted with recent reports of suicides. Until now, one-day performance in a year decides the fate of the medical aspirants.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin is trying to eliminate this exam from the state based on the findings of a committee's report that stated that NEET favours affluent students and promote coaching centre culture, leaving less scope for students from poor families. 

Amid the support for conducting the entrance exam twice a year, there are also some challenges like more than 15 lakh candidates are applying for NEET every year and hence it will not be an easy task to organise the examination twice a year especially during the pandemic time.

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