New Delhi: The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) re-examination for 1,563 candidates will be held on Sunday with the officials National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Union education ministry present at the examination centres, officials said on Friday while emphasizing that six new centres have been issued to students this time.
Officials said that NEET-UG re-examinations will be conducted for 1,563 candidates who were earlier given grace marks as compensation due to lost time during their examination held on May 5. The delay happened due to administrative issues like the distribution of wrong question papers and torn OMR sheets, among others.
The issue was reported at six examination centres in Meghalaya, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Chandigarh.
Senior NTA officials on Friday said that a re-exam would be conducted at seven centres on Sunday. “While all other examination centres have changed, one centre in Chandigarh, where only two candidates will appear, will remain the same,” said a senior NTA official.
Besides, officials from the agency and Union education ministry will also be present at these centres. “The step has been taken to ensure smooth conduct of the re-exam,” the official added.
When asked how many of these 1,563 students have opted for re-exam, the official said, “The admit card has been issued to all. We will see how many of them will turn up on Sunday only.”
The NTA had earlier stated that such candidates who were given grace marks may appear for re-test or will be given the actual marks sans the grace marks. The matter was challenged in the Supreme Court. Later, the NTA withdrew the grace marks, and these 1,563 students were given a choice to either appear for a re-exam on June 23 or consider their original scores without the grace marks.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday refused the counselling of NEET-UG, which is scheduled to begin on July 6, and it will hear the petitions on July 8.
The NEET-UG 2024 exam was conducted on May 5 and the results were declared on June 4, ahead of its scheduled announcement date of June 14. Protests were held, alleging irregularities and paper leaks.
Earlier on Thursday, the Union education minister acknowledged there have been “some errors limited to specific regions”, referring to Bihar’s investigation into allegations of paper leak, and announced that the government is forming a high-level committee, including experts, technocrats, scientists, education administrators and academics, to review the functioning of NTA.
However, on the possibility of scrapping NEET-UG, Pradhan said, “I would like to say humbly that we have to pay attention to the interests of lakhs of brilliant students who have passed that exam after working very hard. …”
