NEW DELHI: The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) for admission to medical colleges will have no changes this year. The exams will be conducted on pen-paper between June-July. Amit Khare, secretary, higher education, said it would be unfair on the students to make any changes on such short notice, and delay in holding the test would affect the new session.

The ministry of education wanted the medical entrance exam to be held more than once a year and on computers, but a consensus could not be reached with the ministry of health on time. With the success of conducting JEE (Main) multiple times in a year and close to 28% of the aspirants (based on the 2020 results) improving their scores in the second attempt, there has been a growing demand for the same for NEET-UG as well.

According to Khare, “In our view, NEET should be held more than once a year because at times it is possible that for some reasons, a candidate is not able to properly concentrate for a particular attempt. That should not result in a waste of. one year. But multiple exams cannot be conducted in pen and paper mode. It will have to be computer-based.”

Khare said offering NEET-UG multiple times and on computers “requires consultation with all the stakeholders because there is a difference between JEE and NEET. JEE is not compulsory for all engineering colleges, whereas NEET is mandatory for admission to all medical colleges. Also, suppose a biology student is not comfortable with a computer, they need to practice and learn. That is why for any changes, we will give six to eight months’ notice,” he said.