NEET-UG likely to be held in online mode

The Centre is considering moving NEET-UG, the national eligibility-cum-entrance test for undergraduate medical studies, to a computer based format on the lines of JEE-Mains (for engineering studies) in coming years, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that appears to have been triggered by reports of irregularities in this year’s test, the validity of which is now the subject of cases being heard in the Supreme Court.

“The idea has been doing the rounds in the committee concerned that has been assigned the job of making relevant changes but no formal direction has been issued so far. The controversy surrounding the competitive examinations (NEET-UG and other examinations) recently has added steam to the thought that there is a need for these exams to go online,” said a central government official requesting anonymity.

But a second official added that “major scaling up will be required” for this to happen as around 2.3 million students appeared for the test in 2024. “There are some 4,000 centres where the test is held across the country and to equip all those with computers and relevant infrastructure will be a challenge. However, there is no denying that it will be a good idea to conduct these exams online like JEE mains.”

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Currently, NEET-UG is conducted offline — in pen and paper mode — wherein students have to solve multiple choice questions on an OMR sheet.

If its format is changed to a Computer Based Test, it will aspirants will be required to use a computer to take the test and mark replies on a soft answer-sheet.

In 2024, 1.4 million students appeared for JEE-Mains, which was conducted across 570 centres.

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Dr MC Misra, former director at AIIMS, Delhi, favoured the shift towards computer-based exams. “Taking this test online is the only way forward to plug the loopholes; there is no point in continuing with the offline mode when whole world is moving towards computer-based exams...but, it won’t be easy to conduct an exam of this scale so they will have to work out the modalities in a better way such as conducting the exam in a phased manner like they do for IITs and having regional question papers etc,” he said.