NEET: The Controversial Exam Shaping the Future of India’s Doctors

The Controversial Exam Shaping the Future of India’s Doctors

3 days ago By Umang Poddar, BBC Hindi, Delhi • Saradha V, BBC Tamil, Chennai

Student groups across India have been protesting since the NEET exam results were announced.

When India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan took his oath in the new session of parliament, many opposition MPs chanted “NEET” and “shame.” They were protesting against a recent controversy surrounding a key national exam overseen by Mr. Pradhan’s ministry. Every year, hundreds of thousands of aspiring doctors take the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG, which determines who gets admitted to medical colleges. The exam has faced strong opposition and protests since it began, but this year it turned into a major scandal after thousands of students received unusually high marks, making it difficult for even high scorers to secure seats in good colleges. Since then, numerous issues have been raised about how the exam was conducted, with allegations of paper leaks and large-scale cheating leaving many students disheartened. One such student is Komal, an 18-year-old from Haryana, who took a gap year to study for NEET and got what would normally be considered a “decent” score. However, fearing she won’t get a seat, she has enrolled in a BSc degree course as a backup option. “I have decided to take the exam next year again, but I’m scared that this controversy can repeat,” she says.

Komal has joined a degree course, fearing that she won’t get a medical seat.

Protesters have demanded a retest, and two states - Tamil Nadu and West Bengal - have asked for the exam to be scrapped and for the old system of states conducting their own tests to be reinstated. The legislative assembly of Tamil Nadu, which has seen the biggest protests, has also passed a resolution stating that the exam has negatively impacted the state’s health system as it favors students from urban and affluent backgrounds, leading to fewer doctors willing to work in poorer, rural areas. As the opposition, including leader in parliament Rahul Gandhi, continues to protest and demand a discussion on NEET, the issue shows no sign of dying down.

Why an Exam Has Sparked National Outrage in India

Before NEET was introduced, there was a national exam that determined who got into premier government colleges such as the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Many states also conducted their own exams, while some relied on the results of a key school-leaving test. K Sujatha Rao, who was the federal health secretary in 2010 when NEET was formally notified by a Congress-led government, says there were three objectives behind a common medical exam: to standardize the educational competence of students, many of whom turned out to be weak in basic subjects; to reduce the number of entrance exams students had to take; and to eliminate the so-called capitation fee - extra payment - charged by private colleges. Many states opposed NEET, saying it took away their autonomy in college admissions.

The police have arrested more than a dozen people over alleged irregularities.

In 2013, India’s Supreme Court agreed with this argument when it struck down the exam (by then, one round of NEET had already been held). It also said that a single test affected the “level playing field” because of the educational disparity between urban and rural areas. The court said that just “academic brilliance” was not enough in medicine but that the country needed “barefoot doctors” who would be ready to serve in remote areas. But three years later, a constitution bench of the court recalled the order. The court’s opinion, just four pages long, did not provide any substantive reasons, only saying that the 2013 bench did not follow “some binding precedents” and that “there was no discussion” among the judges before the order was pronounced. So from 2016, NEET replaced all other medical entrance tests and has been conducted every year.

Opposition in Tamil Nadu

In 2017, the suicide of a student in Tamil Nadu sparked outrage and led to huge protests against the exam. The daughter of a daily wage laborer, the 17-year-old had scored 98% in her school-leaving exam - which should have got her admitted to a good medical college - but her NEET score wasn’t good enough. She was part of a petition in the Supreme Court which argued that the exam hurt students from poorer, rural backgrounds, but the court ruled that admissions should go ahead based on NEET scores. Tamil Nadu has the highest number of medical colleges in any state in India and has protested against the exam from the start. The state’s governing party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, has been vocal against NEET and claims that 26 students in the state have died from suicide since it was introduced. In 2021, a high-level committee, tasked with studying the impact of NEET in Tamil Nadu, recommended abolishing the exam. It said it found that NEET disproportionately favored students who studied in private English-medium schools, belonged to affluent and urban backgrounds, and could afford extra coaching classes. This would “very badly affect” the medical system in the state, leading to a shortage of doctors in government hospitals and rural areas, it said. Sathriyan, 23, says he is among those who suffered because he couldn’t afford private coaching. He wrote NEET five times, starting in 2019, but never passed despite scoring well in school exams. “I studied on my own and I could not crack the exam,” he says, adding that he has now given up on his dream of becoming a doctor and works as a postman in his village.

Hundreds of thousands of students take the NEET exam every year.