Minister bats for decentralisation of NEET

Bengaluru: Following the controversy over alleged paper leaks in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), higher education minister MC Sudhakar urged the Centre and the Supreme Court to decentralise the examination process and allow states to conduct NEET independently.

Around 1.45 lakh students from the state had registered for the exam, of whom nearly 1.40 lakh appeared, recording an attendance rate of 96.39%.



“Karnataka legislature has passed a resolution to scrap NEET and allow states to conduct these exams so that such disruptions will not happen. There should be a serious debate on this. They should file an affidavit in the SC saying that we failed to conduct the exams and centralised exams are not possible in this country. It is high time states took the responsibility of conducting the exams,” he said.

“Let there be a separate exam for All India quota, as earlier. As a centralised system, we see that NTA has been breached. The biggest concern is that for admission to MBBS, only NEET exam is considered. If at all, we consider grade 12 exams too, this pressure would reduce,” he added.

Min seeks action against coaching centres

Meanwhile, minister for medical education Sharan Prakash Patil slammed the Centre and demanded Union education minister’s resignation. “For the past four to five years, irregularities in NEET have been a recurring phenomenon. The BJP govt at the Centre is entirely responsible for this mess. The Prime Minister must stop making grand speeches and instead provide immediate solutions. The man who hosts ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ must first resolve the chaos in this very examination,” he said.

Patil expressed concern over the mental wellbeing of students who prepared diligently for the exam. “Conducting the examination all over again is unfair to honest students. It causes immense stress and hardship to them and their families,” he said.

He called for strict regulatory action against coaching centres indulging in such malpractices and urged the Centre to break the nexus between coaching industries and examination authorities.

School education minister Madhu Bangarappa expressed concern over the burden on students. “We are constantly trying to reduce the academic and mental stress of children at school level. However, such irresponsible decisions of the Central govt are pushing children and parents into a pit of despair,” he said.

Various students’ organisations also called for decentralisation of the exam. “By stripping states of their autonomy and concentrating the entire medical entrance process into a single window controlled by the NTA, the govt has created a single-point failure system. This structure makes it easier for organised mafias to sabotage the future of millions with one stroke. We demand scrapping NTA and immediately reverting to state-level Common Entrance Tests. Alternatively, we advocate for a return to transparent, merit-based counselling conducted at the state level based on Class 12 results,” said Mahesh SG, secretary, AISEC All India Save Education Committee.