Centre mulls holding NEET-UG exams online

New Delhi: Amidst the controversy over the integrity of NEET-UG exam, the Centre is considering the possibility of holding the test online from next year. The shift in the opinion comes as the prestigious exam has been hit by reports of suspected leaks setting off nationwide protests, more than a dozen arrests, a CBI probe, several court hearings — and now a Parliament logjam. Now, NEET is an annual pen-and-paper MCQ test – where candidates have to choose their answers from the options given and mark this on an OMR sheet which is optically scanned.

In the past, the Union Health Ministry, on behalf of which the National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts the exam, resisted suggestions to switch NEET to an online mode.

In 2018, then Education Minister Prakash Javadekar had announced NEET would be conducted online and twice a year from 2019. However, the Education Ministry was forced to withdraw this decision after the Health Ministry objected to its announcement “without formal consultation.” But with concerns over paper leaks, the ministry seems to have finally come around the idea of moving to a computer-based test.

Sources said the final call on switching to online mode rests with the National Medical Commission. The transition, sources said, has its challenges because a computer-based test involves “normalisation” given that there will be multiple versions of the paper.

But a computer-based test, like the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Main or JEE Advanced for admissions to the IITs and engineering colleges, is being seen as one viable option. It is learnt that this was discussed in at least three high-level meetings called over the last one week.

On June 22, the Centre set up a seven-member panel chaired by former ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan to recommend reforms in testing procedures and data security protocols, and to review the NTA’s structure and functioning.