NEET (UG) for medical admissions will be conducted in Gujarati language from next year onwards.

The Gujarat government today said the Centre had given its approval for conducting the 2017 NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) for medical admissions in Gujarati in the state, along with English.

After much deliberation, the Gujarat government keeping in mind the benefit of aspirants has announced to conduct NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) for medical admissions in Gujarati in the state from next year onwards.

The issue was raised in a meeting with HRD minister Prakash Javadekar. It was assured by the MHRD that the students’ interest will be kept in focus while taking any decision.

Earlier, the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry was expected to announce the conduction of NEET in other regional languages, except Gujarati.

If this had been done, then NEET would have been held in five vernacular languages – Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Assamese and Bengali.

Reasons for this decision:

• As per the PTI report, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said, “Due to numerous representations of parents, the state government had urged the Union Health Ministry to conduct NEET in Gujarati”

• “Union Health Minister J P Nadda, in a letter to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, has informed that Health Ministry will conduct NEET 2017 in Gujarati language in our state,” Nitin Patel added

• Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has made NEET mandatory for medical admissions

Important Links: Online Test Series for NEET-UG 2017

Protest staged by parents:

Parents of students, who want to appear for NEET next year, were making all efforts to pressurise the government to hold the exam in Gujarati so as to benefit Gujarati-medium aspirants.

Moreover, many parents staged protests in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad.

Furthermore, as per schedule, the examination NEET 2017 will be held in 86 test centers at 41 cities from December 5th to 13th, 2016.

The examination shall be held as a Computer Based Test and shall comprise 300 multiple choice questions from the MBBS curriculum followed in medical colleges in India, duly prescribed as per the Graduate Medical Education Regulation notified by Medical Council of India with prior approval of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.

Important note: No other examination either at state level or institutional level entrance examination conducted by medical colleges /institutions shall be valid as per the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 with effect from 2017 admission session.

About NEET PG:

NEET-PG is an eligibility-cum-ranking examination prescribed as the single entrance examination to various MD/MS and PG Diploma Courses as per Section (10) of Indian Medical Council Act 1956. It is a single window entrance examination for PG courses.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/neet-2017/1/810987.html