The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) questions in the regional languages will be similar to those to come in English from 2018.
The Centre has decided to maintain uniformity in the test papers in all the languages from next year in wake of the controversies over a difference in questions that came in Hindi and those in some of the regional languages including Tamil and Bengali this year.
"The vernacular question papers for the NEET— all India entrance examination for medical colleges — will just be a translation of the question paper in English," a news agency quoted Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar as saying in Kolkata on Saturday.
The NEET was conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in coordination with the Medical Council of India (MCI) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on May 7 for admissions to medical and dental colleges in the country.
Over 11.38 lakh students took the nation-wide held by the CBSE across the country following a Supreme Court order. The test papers came in 10 regional languages including Kannada, Gujarati, Assamese, Telugu, Marathi and Oriya, besides English.
A controversy over the conduct of test began as students based in Tamil Nadu approached Madras High Court claiming that a uniform question paper was not given during the entrance test and there was also a vast difference between the questions in English and Tamil, though the papers in English and Hindi were same. Hearing the petitions, Madras High Court stayed the declaration of results which was scheduled to come on July 8.
Students and a coaching institute in Gujarat also claimed differences in the questions that came in English and in Gujarati while the West Bengal Education Minister claimed that the questions in Bengali were tougher than those came In English and Hindi.
The results of the test were later declared on June 23 only after the Supreme Court lifted the Madras High Court's stay hearing plea of the CBSE.
(Published 23 July 2017, 07:25 IST)