Is NEET SS a joke? Doctors condemn exam delay, loss of academic year

New Delhi: After a delay of almost one year, the National Board of Examinations (NBE) has finally confirmed that the NEET SS 2024 exam will be held on 29th and 30th March 2025 and invited applications. However, the announcement did not go down well with the doctors and aspirants, who accused the authorities of mismanagement, resulting in an entire year to hold the exam and the consequent delay in the commencement of the academic session for the super-speciality courses.

NEET-SS is an eligibility-and-ranking test for admission to various DM, MCh, and DrNB super speciality courses. The decision to not conduct the NEET SS examination in 2024 was taken by the National Medical Commission (NMC) in its meeting dated 23.02.2024. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that since the admissions for the academic year 2021 for MD/MS and DNB courses were held only between, January to May 2022, NMC decided that the NEET-SS 2024 exam may not be conducted in 2024. 

"The exact date of counselling NEET SS- 2024 in the year 2025 will be decided later," back then, the minutes of the NMC meeting, which the Commission had shared in response to the RTI application filed by with social activist Dr. Vivek Pandey, stated.

Also Read: Announce NEET SS Exam Schedule in 30 Days: SC tells NMC, junks Plea to Hold Exam this year

Thereafter, a few months back, NBE released the exam scheme for the NEET SS 2024 exam and announced that the exam would be held on the 29th and 30th of March. In the notice, NBE also announced the changes in the exam pattern, clarifying that there would be separate question papers for candidates for Medical Oncology and Critical Care Medicine Groups.

However, when recently NBE invited applications for the NEET SS exam to be held on 29th and 30th March, doctors started pointing out how due to the mismanagement by the authorities, the super speciality entrance test was not held for an entire year.

Sharing the NBE notice on X (formerly Twitter), Dr. Anuj, Former General Secretary of RDA VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital wrote, "NEET SS 2024 will be conducted in 2025! What a joke."

Some of the users criticised the timeline announced by NBE as they pointed out that the results of the exam would be released after an entire month. "And they Need ONE MONTH to declare results for an online based exam.. itne time mein toh INICET wale 2 batch passout krde," wrote a doctor on X.

Commenting on the matter, the National General Secretary of United Doctors' Front (UDF), Dr. Arun Kumar questioned, "The 2024 exam is going to be conducted in 2025. Then what about the 2025 exam? When will it be conducted?"

He further told Medical Dialogues, "Who will be held responsible for the delay in the examination? Doctors who are waiting for the examination for the last one year and preparing for that, they have to wait and reschedule their personal life and other things because of the examination. The exam is not a joke. For the first time, there is no examination for an entire year."

"There is a shortage of super-speciality doctors in the hospitals and those who are about to graduate are already overburdened," he mentioned, further adding that the Government should have discussed the issue with the stakeholders to reach for an acceptable solution.

Dr. Karan Juneja, the National Co-Convenor of Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors' Network (IMA-JDN) termed the situation as "sad". He added, "All the exams have been derailed. It is absolutely necessary to properly schedule the academic calendar."

Speaking to Medical Dialogues regarding the issue, a Health Activist and the Chief Patron of the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) said, "It is sad that the exam that should have happened in 2024 is happening in March 2025. God knows when the NEET superspeciality of 2025 will take place. The entire admission process has been disturbed because of this."

"Every year we are facing the same problem- be it NEET Postgraduate examination or undergraduate examination. The delay is something which the Government is not able to solve," he added, further highlighting the need for a single examination authority that will be unreachable. 

Also Read: NEET SS 2024 in March 2025! NBE notifies Tentative Schedule