NEW DELHI: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education on Wednesday made a recommendation to the National Testing Agency (NTA) that the national medical entrance exam be conducted in multiple phases with different dates for states in order to do away with the massive logistical challenges posed due to a single-day exam countrywide.
It has also insisted that the proposal to make the exam an online-based one be implemented only after the digital infrastructure is fully in place.
The first meeting of the committee headed by its new chairperson, Mukul Wasnik, with the education department to review the NEET UG 2026 was held at a committee hall in the Parliament House.
Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi; NTA Director General Abhishek Singh; and K Radhakrishnan, who headed the seven-member committee set up in the aftermath of the NEET-UG 2024 leakage controversy, took part in the meeting.
A source familiar with the developments said, “All details pertaining to the NEET re-exam were sought. Officials said it went on smoothly and elaborated on the security being put in place.
The efforts undertaken to complete the re-exam within a short period, too, were elaborated upon. NTA officials also spoke of the ban they imposed on social media channels, which ensured that no leaks took place during the re-exam.”
After giving a patient hearing to the presentation made by the NTA and lauding the agency for the enormous efforts from its side, the panel proposed holding the exam across different states on varied dates to avoid the humongous logistical challenges present right now.
Wasnik told newspersons later that a report on the deliberations held during the meeting will be released. Reforms that could strengthen the exam and improve its security, transparency, and efficiency in future exams were discussed.
A source said that members of the Parliamentary Committee proposed conducting separate entrance examinations for MBBS, AYUSH and Nursing courses to reduce the large number of candidates appearing for a single examination. The NTA had replied that such a move was not feasible presently as all the three programmes relied only on NEET scores for admissions.
The panel asserted that any future transition to a computer-based NEET should only be undertaken after ensuring adequate digital infrastructure is available across the country and all necessary preparations are completed well in advance to ensure equitable access for candidates, sources said.
NEET-PG exam on August 30, paper pattern changed
NEET-PG exam is scheduled to be conducted on August 30, the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences announced on Wednesday. Regarding test centres, the allocation won’t be based on ‘First-Come First Serve’ basis, it said. The question pattern has been changed to 180 MCQs with five sections of 36 questions each. Once a section ends, the candidate will not be able to go back to it.