The biggest Medical Entrance Examination of the Nation — NEET 2018 concluded on May 06, 2018. But the controversies are not coming to an end. First, it was lack of centres in Tamil Nadu and now, the errors in regional language question papers. Especially in Tamil and Bangla language.
A non-governmental organisation, Tech4All, has complained of errors in the Tamil version of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) paper. On the other hand West Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee wrote to Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar alleging “gross irregularities” in the entrance examination.
Mamata Banerjee wrote that Bengali students were not provided question papers in their language in time. Here is what Mamata has written in her letter to Prakash Javadekar:
“Many were provided with photocopies of question papers which bore the same candidate code for multiple students, and in many cases, the photocopies of questions were illegible. It is also reported that many students were forced to write answers using English or Hindi question papers.” – Mamata Banerjee
She further wrote that 600 candidates appeared for the examination at Kolkata’s Cossipore Central School, but only 520 NEET question papers were provided. Similar was the case in Techno India School at Konnagar in Hooghly district. Mamata has urged Javadekar to take immediate action against those responsible for the irregularities.
A similar allegation was made in Tamil Nadu when nearly 100 Tamil medium NEET aspirants were given question papers in Hindi at a centre in Madurai. Moreover, the pupils were later provided with the Tamil version after a delay of about three hours.
In Tamil Nadu centre, when a question paper pack was opened and distribution began for four halls in the centre they came to know that they were in Hindi. About 1.07 lakh candidates took NEET exams across 170 centres in 10 cities in Tamil Nadu.
Also, in the Tamil language Question Paper, there were some 65 errors which call for 196 grace marks to be awarded, claims an NGO. The NGO’s founder trustee G.B. Ram Prakash has listed 66 errors in all.
“There were 10 errors in Physics, six in Chemistry and 37 in the Biology section. These errors should result in 196 grace marks being awarded to the students.” – G.B. Ram Prakash
He also charges that several technical words have been translated carelessly, making them incomprehensible. Quoting few examples of crude translations he says, In Tamil, a cheetah is known as chiruthai, a bat is vauvaal; similarly a single cell is known as ore anu. The Tamil question paper has not translated cheetah. Also, the single cell has been translated as otrai anu and vauvaal appears as vavlaval.
Few hours after the examination, the unofficial answer keys were released by prominent coaching institutes. Although the official answer keys are still awaited and are expected to be released in the 04th week of May 2018. Using the answer keys candidates will get their estimated scores. The answer keys for all the sets will be published on the official website of NEET 2018, cbseneet.nic.in.
The result of NEET 2018 will be declared on June 05, 2018. Last year the result was announced at 10:30 am. Two years ago the result declaration time was 5 pm. So there is actually no set time at which CBSE can publish the result. Candidates thus need to stay in touch with the website regularly on the result day.
Such errors in a NEET 2018 — What are your opinions on this? What measures must be taken, now that the allegations about NEET irregularities are pouring in? Do let us know in the comments below.
