With 1st-year postgraduate students joining workforce late, doctors are putting in extra hours. Meanwhile, undergrads preparing for exam are getting demotivated, say those from fraternity.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), a qualifying exam for undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) medical students in India, has been thrown off schedule over the past few years in the wake of the Covid pandemic, resulting in overworked doctors and stressed students, say those part of the medical fraternity.
Conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), NEET for undergraduates is traditionally scheduled to be held in the first week of May and NEET for postgraduates in the month of January.
But in 2020, while NEET-PG was held on time, NEET-UG got delayed to September.
In 2021, NEET-PG was delayed twice, from January to April, and then to September. The delay that year was also caused by a case in the Supreme Court over revising the income criteria to determine the Economically Weaker Section quota for NEET admissions. NEET-UG in 2021 was again held in September instead of May.
In 2022, the PG exam was held in May, while the UG exam was held in July.
As a result of the delays, the subsequent counselling (or admission process) has also been thrown off track.
For example, the last round of counselling for 1,311 seats for the NEET-PG exams held in May last year is still on. This means over a 1,000 medical seats for 2022 are still empty in colleges across India.
According to the usual schedule, counselling begins within two months of declaration of results. This has now been extended by four to six months, say students.
In 2022, over 18 lakh students had appeared for NEET-UG and over 2 lakh candidates appeared for the PG exam.
Since NEET is a highly competitive exam, delay in its schedule exacts a heavy cost from students and medical institutions, say doctors and experts.
“The delayed examination has led to huge stress in the current medical workforce. With first-year students (PG) coming in months after the scheduled dates, doctors have to put in twice the number of working hours,” Dr Manish (who only goes by his first name), a resident doctor at Safdarjung Hospital, told ThePrint. Read More On..
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