Relief! State Board Syllabi to be considered for NEET 2018

NEET 2018 question papers will be prepared considering the state boards’ syllabi also. This is done to provide equal opportunities to state board’s students.

19 January 2018: In a relief to lakhs of medical aspirants, the Centre has decided to consider the syllabi of all State boards while framing the question paper for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for the year 2018.

Till last year, NEET question paper was framed on the basis of CBSE syllabus. This was a disadvantage for the State boards’ students due to differences in the syllabi of Chemistry, Physics and Biology among many states.

The Union Human Resources Development Minister, Prakash Javadekar, said; “Today we had a special meeting (on NEET) and we have decided that we will take into account curricula of all State boards while framing the question paper for NEET so that students of State boards are not at any disadvantage from this year.”

He further said; “This problem should be resolved now and states should have no reason to complain anymore. Students of any State board will now not be at a disadvantage when it comes to NEET”

In an interview, the Union HRD Minister has also said that as per the SC direction, NEET 2018 question paper will also be prepared in Urdu for the first time. This is an addition to the 10 languages in which the NEET is already being conducted - Hindi, English, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Oriya and Kannada. In response to the petition filed by Student Islamic Organisation, the Supreme Court has directed the Centre to include Urdu as a medium of question paper from 2018.

NEET-UG is expected to be conducted in the first week of May for admission into MBBS and BDS courses offered by all private and government colleges in India except All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER).

Experts are, however, of the opinion that it would be difficult to base the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) paper on multiple syllabi. A member of the Medical Council of India (MCI) said; “So close to the final publication of the examination schedule and syllabus, I do not know how much the government can do. Also, it won’t be an easy task to base examination papers on so many curricula. I hope this does not lead to further confusion in the minds of students”

NEET 2018 Notification

The official notification for NEET 2018 is expected to come by the last week of January. Syllabus, exam date and other important details will be released through the official notification.