No Online Test for NEET-UG 2019, To be Conducted Only Once
The Ministry of Health has urged HRD Ministry to roll back the decision of conducting NEET twice a year in online or computer-based mode. NEET-UG 2019 will be conducted only once a year in pen and paper mode.
Last month, the HRD Ministry announced that the National Testing Agency (NTA) would conduct NEET twice a year in online mode. The decision of HRD Ministry garnered mixed response across the country. A few days back, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar also clarified that NEET would be a Computer-Based Test instead of the online exam.
HRD Ministry thought that the idea might not work out for NEET-UG 2019, and rolled back the decision on NEET-UG online exam. As per sources, NEET-UG 2019 will be pen and paper-based and will be only conducted once a year. National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct NEET-UG 2019.
Earlier, the Union Ministry of Health had written to the HRD Ministry urging it to roll back the decision on conducting NEET-UG twice a year. The ministry was afraid that the online or computer-based test might cause chaos, as it would put students from economically poor and rural families at a disadvantage.
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As per the official schedule released by HRD, NTA will conduct NEET in the month of May. However, the registration process for the exam will begin in November.
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The health ministry further expressed that holding NEET-UG exam in online mode in 16 sessions is the most difficult and challenging task. The NTA will have to maintain a large question bank to cater to the proposed pattern of the exam. In all, the Health Ministry had urged the HRD Ministry to reconsider the idea of conducting NEET-UG 2019 in online mode and twice a year, and the HRD Ministry decided to conduct NEET-UG only once a year.