New Delhi, 9 August 2021 – The national medical entrance examination – NEET could be conducted twice a year. Although speculative news about such a possibility is making the rounds, no concrete decision has been made by the authorities yet. At the same time, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Education has been considering the possibility of conducting the medical entrance exam multiple times during a year, starting with 2021.
The Director-General (DG) of the National Testing Agency (NTA), Vineet Joshi informed, “The authorities are still in discussion about conducting the medical entrance examinations twice a year. If we can find a breakthrough, a solid ground, NEET could be held twice a year from the next academic year.”
NEET 2021 – Earlier Events
A few months back, it was announced that the JEE Main exams would be conducted 4 times a year (February, March, April, and May) from 2021 onwards. After seeing such flexibility offered to JEE candidates, aspirants of NEET also started requesting via social media sites like Twitter to implement the same provision for the medical entrance examination as well.
When Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank was heading the Ministry of Education, he also stroked the idea of conducting the medical entrance exam twice a year. Even at present, the students are urging for the introduction of multiple attempts in NEET. Besides, the students of the Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) also demanded multiple attempts in NEET through a letter to the then Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal.
The letter stated, “It is heartening to see that the National Testing Agency will be conducting the JEE for engineering institutions four times this year, giving each student multiple attempts to give their best possible performance, and also allowing for students impacted by health and other concerns to skip a test without having to drop a whole year. A similar decision must be taken for other “high-stakes” exams, including at least NEET and CLAT for medical and law colleges respectively.”
NEET 2021 – Current Updates
As per the existing norm, the NEET exam is conducted in pen and paper (offline) mode once a year. However, the JEE Main has now been upgraded to 4 sessions a year in CBT (computer-based test) mode (online).
Vineet Joshi has assured that the talks of holding the medical entrance exam multiple times a year is not off the table just yet. While the number of JEE Main 2021 attempts has increased in the current academic year, students are optimistic about the increase of NEET attempts with Joshi’s assurance.
