After rounds of controversies, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) successfully conducted the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) on May 6 at various centres across the nation. The exam was held for students who aspire to pursue medical courses. To run the most coveted exam smoothly, CBSE adopted stringent measures this year. In a recent release through Press Information Bureau, the board has highlighted major steps that were taken for the benefit of the students. The report also mentioned the increased number of students along with exam centres in almost all the states and union territories in India. CBSE class X and class XII evaluation process was slowed down as all the officials were given the responsibility to conduct NEET (UG) 2018.
In April, CBSE issued the Admit Cards for NEET 2018 at their official websites. The report led by the Ministry of Human Resource Development also denied news about depriving Tamil Nadu candidates of attempting question paper in Tamil. Amidst all the speculations, here are the significant points, major steps and data released by CBSE to ensure successful conduct of NEET 2018:
1. CBSE NEET 2018 witnessed a whopping number of candidates appearing in the medical entrance test. As compared to previous year, a total of 13,26,725 students sat for the exam across various centres.
2. Efforts were also made to provide the best suitable environment to all its aspirants. Not just cities, but number of examination centres were also increased to accommodate more and more students. The number of cities this year were 136 and it hosted 2,255 examination centres.
3. More than 4000 observers were allotted across the country at centres to supervise the examination. Again, around 700 board’s officials were deputed in all 136 cities to monitor and control the entrance exam at local level.
4. At 2,255 examination centres, nearly 56,000 rooms were arranged to accommodate large number of students.
5. Nearly 1,00,000 SMS and 30,000 mails were sent to centres addressing different issues, so that they can hold the NEET 2018 successfully.
6. To ensure that candidates are accommodated near their home, not just CBSE affiliated schools but other institutions were also fixed as centre.
7. CBSE clarified the incident where a student from Tamil Nadu claimed that he was forced to travel till Udaipur centre. The officials denied as his online application records show that the child himself adopted the said centre for NEET 2018.
8. In another case, Tamil Nadu students were reported being deprived of attempting NEET UG examination in Tamil. CBSE denied and informed that those who opted for Tamil as medium were given centres within Tamil Nadu and provided question papers in Tamil.
9. In 4 out of 2,255 centres in India during the examination, it came to notice that the medium of question paper was not correct for the candidates. The board immediately provided them the papers in the language of their choice.
As the board clarified the matter of student’s choice in the medium of question paper; West Bengal has reported that at examination centres the candidates were not provided with Bengali question papers on time. Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee said that many students were forced to write answers using English or Hindi question papers. Banerjee wrote a letter to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar demanding immediate action and re-examination to give a fair opportunity to all the NEET aspirants. The response by CBSE is still awaited.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 08, 2018 04:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).