Centre considering possibility of switching NEET-UG from pen-and-paper to online

But a computer-based test, like the Joint Entrance Exam  (JEE) Main or JEE Advanced for admissions to the IITs and engineering colleges, is being seen as one viable option. It is learnt that this was discussed in at least three high-level meetings called over the last one week.

On June 22, the Centre set up a seven-member panel chaired by former ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan to recommend reforms in testing procedures and data security protocols, and to review the NTA’s structure and functioning.

Incidentally, in 2018, then Education Minister Prakash Javadekar had announced NEET would be conducted online and twice a year from 2019. However, the Education Ministry was forced to withdraw this decision after the Health Ministry objected to its announcement “without formal consultation.” The Health Ministry’s concern pertaining to computer-based test was that it would put poor and rural students at a disadvantage.

Asked about the Health Ministry’s rethink, a senior government official said, “There are many students from rural backgrounds who qualify take the JEE Main and qualify for JEE (Advanced), which are both computer-based tests. Then why should it be a problem for NEET aspirants from rural areas?”

Sources said the final call on switching to online mode rests with the National Medical Commission. Sources in the NMC also acknowledged the online exam is a “serious option.”

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The transition, sources said, has its challenges because a computer-based test involves “normalisation” given that there will be multiple versions of the paper.

“This year, 24 lakh candidates appeared for NEET-UG… If we move online, the exam will need to be conducted over multiple shifts and days. Approximately 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh candidates can appear in one shift in an online test… ,” a senior official said.

“Therefore, to accommodate NEET numbers, we will need to have multiple shifts over different days – just as we do with the two cycles of JEE Main — and that means having different question papers. For results preparation, we will have to normalise marks to take care of any differences in the difficulty level of question papers. We’ve never had to do that for NEET in the past,” the official added.

What’s weighing in its favour, sources said, are advantages of a computer-based test. Currently, the JEE is conducted in two stages — JEE Main by the NTA and JEE Advanced by the IITs. This year, both sessions of JEE Main saw a total of 8.22 lakh candidates while 1.8 lakh took the Advanced.

Professors who have been involved in conducting JEE attribute its integrity to two factors — first, it is now entirely computer-based, and, second, the IITs have “absolute control” over JEE Advanced.

“The vulnerability of process is a function of the number of people involved in it. Greater the number of people involved, the more is the risk of system getting compromised. The IITs take great care to ensure fewer people are involved who work in small teams isolated from each other. Also, these people change every year,” said an IIT professor who has headed this process in the past.

“This used to happen even when JEE used to be a pen and paper exam. The papers used to be carried to the centres by three or four faculty members… Now it is a computer-based exam, so that takes care of a lot of vulnerabilities,” he said.