NEET During COVID-19 and BEYOND

NEET exam is often counted as a test, which determines whether an Indian medical aspirant wins or fails in their career. Is the pandemic a chance to relook at the selection techniques of medical education? A HE Report.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) was held on September 13 across the country amid rigorous inspections and protocols because of the COVID-19. Over 15 lakh candidates had enrolled for the undergraduate examination, but it was held amid objections from states as well as student associations.

Earlier, legal news portal livelaw.in had reported that review petitions were filed in Supreme court stating that the decision to conduct exam during a pandemic would prompt "grave and irreparable harm and injury would befall on the student community" and that "public health at large would be in severe jeopardy in these COVID-19 times."

Life Must Continue?

Initially scheduled for May 3, NEET was deferred twice due to COVID-19. Though several states had wanted postponement of NEET citing the rising number of COVID-19 cases, the Supreme Court had sustained Centre's judgment to hold the mandatory entrance exam.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), the body organizing the exam, had put in place various stratagems like raising the number of exam centres and decreasing the number of pupils in a room.

Dr Edmond Fernandes, CEO, CHD Group, believes that we need to learn to live with the virus. "Conducting of NEET Examination during a pandemic is a mark of resilience and courage to signal that life cannot and must not stop. However, the government must also practice people-centric policies by eliminating quarantine rules which are now obsolete due to community transmission and encourage better mobility and greater recovery," he adds.

Not So Neat?

But not everyone might conform to his perspective. At least, not Santosh Kumar Yadav, a resident of Darbhanga in Bihar, who travelled 700-odd kilometre distance to reach Kolkata for his exam. According to a Hindustan Times report, he was not allowed to take the test, as he was ten minutes late.

"Why should a student travel 700 kilometres to write an entrance exam?" asks Dr Shenoy Robinson, Chair CII technical Committee-Health. "We should change these outdated systems of evaluation and introduce online tests. So, even if there is no internet access at their local town, students can take exams at their respective districts," he adds.

Robinson notes that the problem with India is we don't ask students what they want. "If it were my child, I would have asked him/her to take the exam next year. Every life is precious. The problem with India is that the middle class and upper class are obsessed with elite educational institutions," he adds.

Why We Need to Rethink Conventional Ways

But dropping the exams and treating it as a gap year might have lingered the quandary and also doubled the number of aspirants next year.

A gap year is often not a viable substitute for candidates, who consider NEET as a passport for a bright future. The fear of the pandemic, made more detrimental by the delay of exams also led to suicides of students this year.

The Madras High Court noted last year that the poor could not afford to attend private coaching classes for NEET as the costs go up to Rs.5 lakhs. The court observed that NEET is a disadvantage for the poor as only those who attend private coaching classes secure medical seats.

Even questions were raised in Lok Sabha about how only 100 students got medical admissions through NEET, without taking any private coaching classes out of 4850 seats in government and self-financing colleges in Tamil Nadu.

In the past, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare received requests from the State Government of Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry to exempt students from appearing in NEET for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses.

In the draft National Medical Commission Bill, there was a provision for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). The State Government of Tamil Nadu had expressed its disapproval to the Departmental Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare. The Committee took cognizance of these remarks and after due deliberation confirmed in its 109th Report on NMC Bill 2017 to conduct a uniform national test for admission to the undergraduate medical education in all medical institutions. Afterwards, the Parliament legislated the NMC Act with the provision of NEET, and the Act was enacted on August 8 2019.

Turnout for NEET Exams Good, says Minister

Further, state governments had adopted a host of safety measures like free transport, accommodation and metro service for candidates. The NTA had also raised the number of centres from 2,546 in 2019 to 3,862 this year to ensure crowd management. NEET-UG is a pen and paper exam and is held once a year.

Union Minister for Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that around 85-90% of students appeared at the NEET exam despite the coronavirus pandemic. He said this "reflects the tenacity and grit of young".

"NTA informed me that around 85-90% of students appeared in #NEET exam today. I sincerely thank all Chief Ministers and @DG_NTA for proper arrangements made to facilitate student participation. #NEET participation reflects the tenacity and grit of young #AtmaNirbharBharat," Pokhriyal said on Twitter.

Other Issues Ignored

Dr Nitin Yashas Murthy from Bangalore says that there are myriad challenges now for medical students during a pandemic. "As the nation focused on NEET, one issue that missed was the numerous theoretical and practical exams which were rescheduled and delayed by many months at medical colleges. The hallmark of an exam in the medical stream is the practical exam where there is a live interaction with the patient, and the student is evaluated based on his ability to take a good history, examination and arrive at a diagnosis. The pandemic has changed all of that with most universities conducting their exams based on OSCE involving simulated case scenarios," explains Murthy, who is currently pursuing his DNB in Medical Oncology.

The question of NEET being conducted during a pandemic is one that is a double-edged sword. "Is it even practically feasible to cancel out an entire academic year and have twice the number of students compete for the seats next year leading to more chaos?" he asks. "Conducting the exam is probably the right decision. However, the way it is to be conducted needs to be addressed," he concludes.

Bring More Flexibility

Dr Yudhyavir Singh, Assistant Professor, Anaesthesiology at AIIMS New Delhi, points out that it is already five months since the pandemic started. "We have seen the pandemic and how this has behaved. It is good to proceed with exams. Careers of students shouldn't be kept at stake for such a long time. This pandemic is going to stay here for a while for a year or two. So we have to adapt to live. Exams can be conducted with precautions, practising social distancing and mask for all with proper sanitization. We have to learn to live with the pandemic until the vaccine arrives."

What about the students who missed the exam?

"Government should give certain relaxation to the students regarding the exam, in terms of the number of attempts, marks and other benefits."

The medical entrance exam is very tough as compared to the other entrance exams in the country. Singh who hails from Ranchi, notes that he took the All India Pre Medical Test. "During our time, we had to appear for several exams for multiple medical colleges. There was a separate exam for AIIMS, PGI, SGPGI, JIPMER, AFMC and other states too. So, it was not easy at that time, filling up so many forms, so much money involved so much travelling. It's better to have a single entrance test for the whole country," he concludes.