Why Is the NEET Exam A Problem Every Year?

About the NEET exam:

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is an exam conducted every year for the students who aspire to be doctors in India. The NEET-exam was started in the year 2013. The exam will be conducted all over India in various examination centers. The question paper for the NEET exam will be conducted in 10 regional languages.

The NEET exam: a boon or a bane?

Like every coin has two sides, the NEET exam has a set of advantages as well as disadvantages.

• Benefits of the NEET exam:

• There used to be a separate medical entrance test for each college. This may increase the cost of applying and traveling to the examination centers. The NEET is the common medical entrance test for all the private and government colleges in India. Thus, this makes the entrance test simple and one.
• Students now are free from the pressure of preparing for various medical entrance tests following various syllabus. This makes students to concentrate only on one syllabus and one exam.
• As we live in a country like India with lakhs of students completing   their school education the competition for getting into a course is very high. Especially Medicine is a branch with a traditional branch of study which gives dignity and satisfaction to Doctors. So Corruption obviously arises.
• Elite class people had the practice of getting (buying) a medical seat for their ward in private colleges by giving lakhs of rupees. With the advent of NEET, this practice was avoided.
• People from lower classes of society can also now become a Doctor because of NEET.
• This exam increases the quality of this professional degree since most of the students used to memorize the core subjects and get very good marks in their respective board exams and got seats according to their score. The main drawback here is talented students who understood the subjects but did not have capability to memorize them could not realize their Doctor dream.
• Since Exam is conducted all over the country on the same date there increases a chance of improving the integrity of India and increasing the opportunities of backward state people.
• Proper Checking is done before writing the exam increases the fairness and transparency in NEET.
• There is a recent unconfirmed announcement which states that there will be two NEET exams per year. If this is true students could make two attempts in a single year and their best score out of two will be validated for final counseling.
• NTA also announced that NEET will be conducted through online mode in the future years. If this happens then the threat of question paper leak could be avoided.

• Cons of NEET:

• The first and foremost reason that people say against NEET is the nature of questions asked in NEET. NTA focuses only on the CBSE syllabus which is still a royal class of education for many students
• Students of different states with different syllabus could match the syllabus of CBSE and they eventually fail in the exam
• NEET exams faced many issues officially and mentally in states like Tamil Nadu were medical seats where filled based on 12^th marks obtained
• Though NEET curbed the intensity of donation seats in private colleges it does not reduce the fee structure of private and government colleges
• Mental pressure of students keeps on increasing since they prepare for both their board exams and NEET parallelly. They try to go to separate tuitions for coaching which indeed increases the mental pressure of parents too.
• Suicide of aspirants who fail in NEET keeps on increasing as they consider NEET as the only gateway to realize their MBBS dream. By seeing one other also do the same in the following years. It is a pathetic situation that the suicide toll is released every year together with NEET results.
• Since NEET could be written only in specified exam centers rural students may miss the examination. NTA may consider those candidates who come late by giving a second chance to them on a prescribed date.
• Career of students may become a question mark since NEET aspirants spend one or two years in this preparation. Finally, if they did not crack the exam two years of their career go in vain and they have the start them by joining a new college in another stream.
• Expensive private coaching is needed to crack this exam. Tamil Nadu government data shows that only 1.6% of aspirants clear NEET without expensive private coaching. This makes MBBS as an unattainable dream for Tamil medium students/Government school students.
• NEET scams are coming to picture nowadays with aspirants even hire people with well-versed knowledge to write exams for them. This is known commonly in southern states of India.
• To reduce all these scams checking in exam centers was tightened to the peak but in some areas, it crossed its level like interrupting the beliefs of a married woman by asking them to remove their sacred thread of marriage.

Things to be overcome in future:

• NEET coaching centers which are run by the government should be opened in a large number which will support rural students and those who could not offer expensive paid coaching in private situations.
• Every coaching center in the country must be properly regularized by authority since many fake/illegal institutions cheat students by offering a poor quality of education and getting more fee.
• NEET syllabus must be changed in an unbiased manner in which all students from different boards may study easily and crack the exam.
• Government school students who are interested in NEET must be allocated with a special hour per day for NEET preparation with the guidance of respected teachers.
• Proper career guidance must be done in every school for 12^th students to know in what field they are really good at because most students suffer since they prepare for NEET only for their parent’s sake or dream.

There are immense hurdles faced by the aspirants which don’t even come out at times. It’s merely the government’s responsibility to provide necessary solutions to the problems faced by the students.