NEET In Regional Languages Tougher Than English & Hindi Medium Papers, Creates Furore

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 for admission to medical schools across India was held on May 7. A total of 11,38,890 students, including 1,522 NRIs and 613 foreigners registered for the examination which was conducted in 10 languages at 1,921 exam centres in 103 cities.

Since January, NEET has been mired with controversies.

In a recent development, the HRD Ministry has sought an explanation from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) about the allegation that NEET papers in some regional languages were different and more difficult compared to the Hindi and English medium papers.

“Students from different states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat and West Bengal, had demanded that the question papers be given in regional languages and not just English and Hindi for ease of understanding. According to the rules, students across the nation should have sat for the same exam. This is what ‘One Nation One Exam’ means. Everyone should get the same questions despite different languages used in the question paper,” Dr Anand Rai, an activist and the key whistleblower in the Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh, told The Logical Indian.

“When a question paper is in Hindi, it is exactly translated from the English paper. The same should have happened for regional languages. For instance, in Tamil Nadu, the Tamil question paper and the English question paper should have had the exact same questions. But different questions were given to students from different states. There were contrasting levels of difficulty as well. The students in Tamil Nadu who gave the exam in Tamil and the students in West Bengal who gave the exam in Bengali sat for a much tougher test than the Hindi and English medium students. How can the questions be different if a single merit list comes out?” he added.

The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board’s (GSHSEB) topper, Farhana, secured 99.72 per cent in class XII science results-medical. But now she remains sceptical of even cracking NEET as questions in Gujarati and English medium papers were different and the Gujarati medium question paper was claimed to be tougher.

Students in West Bengal were also baffled as the English and Bengali question papers of the exam didn’t match. Candidates taking the test in Bengali alleged that the level of difficulty was way higher than in English or Hindi. Some even claimed that the weightage varied, which will give undue advantage to students opting to take the exam in English or Hindi, as reported by The Times of India.

Dr Rai has started drafting a petition to file in the Supreme Court, challenging this year’s NEET question papers. He has also requested a stay on the results till the matter is solved.

We started drafting petition regarding NEET,all interested petitioner may call sandipan choudhry our coordinator in delhi @VaibhavSriva01

— Dr. Anand Rai (@anandrai177) May 15, 2017

The Logical Indian take

The NEET 2017 has become one of the most controversial exams with new stories cropping up every day.

Hundreds of medical aspirants have staged protests in Lucknow demanding re-examination following instances of alleged question paper leaks in different cities, including Patna, Jaipur and New Delhi.

Since January, the CBSE had been introducing new regulations like restrictions on age limit and the maximum number of attempts. There was also a lot of confusion in the deadline for filing the form due to which many students missed the last date.

Last week, there was a controversy related to the dress code, particularly that of a girl in Kannur who alleged that she was made to remove her innerwear.

NEET is a national level examination for thousands of medical aspirants. Such flaws in management point to a lack of care for the students’ careers. It also discourages the students and undermines their confidence.

The CBSE should have administered the examination in a better manner – one which gives justice to the months of preparation by students, most of whom were fresh out of school and sitting for a competitive examination for the first time in their lives.

The Logical Indian urges the CBSE to take proper measures so that the students’ careers are not hurt. We also hope that such errors are not committed in the future.