HYDERABAD: It seems another chaotic year lies ahead for aspiring medicos with uncertainty over the NEET result and possibility of a re-examination. Experts feel any delay in the Madras High Court’s verdict would delay the admission process by at least a month-and-half, provided that the common entrance test is not scrapped altogether.
It may be recalled that the Gujarat and Madras High Courts have issued notices to CBSE and Medical Council of India (MCI) over a plea alleging the test was not conducted in a uniform manner across the country. Not only was the English question paper different from the vernacular ones, the degree of difficulty varied too, putting a large number of candidates at a disadvantage. The petitioners have, thus, demanded the cancellation of NEET 2017.
“With both the HCs entertaining the issue, the possibility of a re-examination cannot be ruled out. Of course conducting an exam of this large magnitude will be challenging for the CBSE and MCI,” said Dheeraj Kumar Misra, director (South) of Aakash Foundation.
Though no one has challenged the entrance test in the two Telugu states, the English and Telugu question papers were different here too. “There is no parameter to judge which paper was difficult. Telugu medium students found some questions in their paper difficult while English medium students found a few difficult ones in their paper.
What, however, was the rationale behind printing different sets of questions for English and vernacular languages is for the CBSE to explain to the courts,” added Misra.
Officials in-charge of medical education refute possibility of re-examination
Officials in charge of medical education, however, have refuted any possibility of re-examination on the grounds that allegations of arbitrary and unreasonable approach by CBSE are nothing but ‘wild allegation’.
“Why will there be a re-examination? The verdict isn’t out yet. CBSE still hasn’t given its counter. As for the difficulty levels being different for English and vernacular papers are wild allegations. All papers were same and all questions from within the MCI syllabus,” said Arun Singhal, in-charge of medical education in Union Health Ministry.
When Express contacted the CBSE regional office, Chennai, which oversees the Board’s activities in the southern states, the assistant secretary R Venkatesh said that all matters pertaining to examination were dealt with in the Delhi head office.