NEET 2021 To Be Conducted Twice A Year, Health Ministry Gives Green Signal: Report

As per the recent report by the New Indian Express, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has given its approval to hold the NEET two times a year, paving the way for the examinations to be organized on the lines of the JEE Main.

However, the schedule for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other medical courses is still to be finalized and declared.

"While we felt that a large number of NEET aspirants still may not be ready for appearing in the examination in online mode, there is now a consensus on conducting the test twice this year," a senior official in the medical education department of the Health Ministry informed the New Indian Express.

NEET 2021 twice a year is expected to help the aspirants to be ranked based on the best of two scores if they appear for both sessions. It is the same format as followed by JEE Main last year. 

While giving this exam, the aspirants go through a lot of stress, if the exam is conducted more than once a year, then the stress of the students will resultantly be less. Besides, this year's academic year being very chaotic due to the coronavirus epidemic and candidates faced a lot of pressure.

Last week, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, in an interview with a TV channel, had said that officials from his and the health ministry had interacted recently and there is a possibility of the exam being conducted twice with giving students an additional attempt being actively discussed.

NEET, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test is a big competitive exam, which is conducted once a year only on pen-paper mode for admissions to MBBS and BDS courses across the country. This year for NEET 2020, 13,66,945 students participated and over 15,97,435 candidates registered for it. NEET 2021 will be held for admission to 91,367 MBBS, 26,949 BDS, 52,720 AYUSH and 525 BVSc seats across India.

There had been a lot of suspense over the conduct of NEET this year. Since the conclusion of NEET 2020, the MBBS and BDS aspirants across the country are eagerly waiting for the National Testing Agency (NTA) to release the timetable for the entrance test for the next academic session.

More so, the Union Ministry of Education had earlier decided to hold the JEE Main Examination for admissions to engineering colleges online four times in 2021. After the announcement of the JEE Main 2021 schedule, all eyes are on National Testing Agency, NTA and Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal for the announcement on NEET 2021.

Additionally, the Ministry of Education had earlier confirmed via PIB press release that the syllabus of NEET 2021 or any other national level entrance exam will not be changed. However, there may be a change in the exam pattern to ensure students with reduced syllabus are not affected.