E-Paper
NEET-UG will stay offline despite panel's suggestion
The 2024 edition of NEET-UG was conducted for 2.4 million students in offline mode, with candidates filling in multiple-choice answers in an answer sheet
The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday announced that the 2025 edition of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test- Undergraduate or NEET-UG will be conducted offline on a single day and in a single shift, sidestepping some key recommendations made by an expert panel last year.
The seven-member high-level committee was set up by the Union government last year after an uproar over the botched NEET-UG examination process that saw spiralling allegations of question paper leaks, inflated marking, and arbitrary allowance of grace marks.
Among its key recommendations was shifting to a “multi-session” and “multi-stage” online test.
But on Thursday, NTA decided to stick to the same pen-and-paper process used in 2024.
“As decided by the National Medical Commission (NMC), the NEET-UG shall be conducted in pen-and-paper mode (OMR-based) in a single day and shift,” a NTA notice said.
The agency did not respond to HT’s queries.
A senior education ministry official said that NTA’s decision was taken in the “larger interest of students ” who appear for the NEET-UG, used to screen aspirants applying for undergraduate medical courses.
Professor BJ Rao, vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad and a member of the high-level committee, said the changes asked by the panel will take time to implement.
“As part of the nationwide infrastructure for conducting exams, we have recommended the establishment of at least one test centre in every district. In the absence of any new infrastructure, NTA cannot conduct massive online testing due to logistical reasons. NTA should start implementing our recommendations with the starting point being infrastructure. The ministry of Education is restructuring NTA, and it will take time for the entire rehaul of the agency,” he said.
The 2024 edition of NEET-UG was conducted for 2.4 million students in offline mode, with candidates filling in multiple-choice answers in an answer sheet. NTA is yet to announce the schedule for NEET-UG 2025.
“The examination is around the corner, now. It was felt that changing at this stage may not be the most appropriate thing. This decision is in the larger interest of the students who are going to appear in the NEET-UG 2025 examination. Students should be familiar with the mode of examination and if any change is to be made, adequate time should be given to students,” said the senior education ministry official cited above.
Last year, the exam results were announced on June 4 but the process was soon engulfed in chaos and widespread protests, with thousands of students demonstrating against allegations of question paper leaks, inflated marking, and arbitrary allowance of grace marks.
The case reached the Supreme Court, which later allowed the Centre to scrap grace marks even as the government maintained there was no large-scale leak of question papers. In the ensuing melee, several other top examinations such as UGC-NET were also postponed.
On June 22, 2024, the government set up a seven-member panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chair Dr K Radhakrishnan to suggest ways to improve NTA’s functioning. The committee submitted its report to the government on October 21.
“Multi-stage testing for NEET-UG could be a viable possibility that needs to be followed up. An acceptable framework with thresholds and test objectives of scoring or ranking at each stage and the number of attempts, etc. may be evolved,” the panel said in the report.
Among its 101 recommendations, the panel also suggested “multi-session testing” spread over a couple of weeks for exams having over 200,000 aspirants while ensuring transparency in the normalisation process.
While releasing the Radhakrishnan panel report on NTA’s functioning on December 17, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the testing agency will fulfil the health ministry’s expectations for conducting NEET either online or in offline mode while ensuring “zero error.”
Some students expressed their concerns about NTA’s decision.
“I think NEET UG 2025 should have been conducted either in online or hybrid mode to avoid any paper leak. I fear that NTA will not be able to ensure a 100% foolproof examination as those involved in last year’s paper leak will become active again and leak the papers. It will be my fifth attempt,” said Abhishek Maurya, a 24-year-old medical aspirant who is taking NEET coaching in Kanpur.
Rao said that NTA should adhere to the Radhakrishnan panel’s recommendations of conducting exams in collaboration with local government machinery such as local police, local educational officers, and heads of government educational institutions and not rely on private centres to “avoid any paper leak and malpractices.”
The panel recommended the usage of Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) across the country as test centres.
