Setback for Odisha; Odia not a language of choice for NEET-UG

Swetaparna Published On : Dec 21, 2016 at 11:45 PM Updated On : Dec 22, 2016 at 5:55 PM

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
New Delhi/Bhubaneswar, Dec 21:

In a major setback for students from Odisha, Odia is not included among the eight languages announced by Union Health Ministry today for conducting National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-UG (NEET-UG) from the 2017-18 academic year.

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The eight languages notified by the Health Ministry are Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu and Tamil.

“Under the directions of Health Minister J P Nadda, and after rigorous and extensive consultations with state governments about their examination pattern and other related aspects, it has been decided that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) from AY 2017-18 will be conducted in following 8 languages,” said a statement of the Union Health Ministry.

In addition to this, the Ministry said the candidate qualifying NEET would be eligible for All-India quota and other quotas under the state governments/Institutes irrespective of the medium in which the exam was taken by the candidate, subject to other eligibility criteria.

“NEET and its implementation in regional languages is the outcome of the government’s commitment of bringing about transparency in medical education and removing malpractices,” said the statement.

Notably, NEET-UG is the national level medical entrance test regulated by the CBSE Board held for providing admissions in MBBS/BDS courses offered by all government and private medical colleges in the country. It is a one tier exam, commences once in a year in the month of May. From the year 2016 onwards, NEET exam has replaced AIPMT exam. All seats (MBBS/BDS) of any medical/dental college will be filled by the score of NEET examination only. (With IANS inputs)

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