KOLKATA: The question paper of National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) in Bengali had the lowest number of takers this year. And, with major translation errors in the Bengali question paper, the number of candidates opting to appear in the language in the national medical exam is likely to dwindle even further next year.
While 34,417 students took the exam in Bengali in 2017, this number stood at 27,437 this year — a slump of 6,980. Bengali is the only vernacular that witnessed lesser number of candidates while 10 other languages saw a rise. The most preferred languages this year were Gujarati and Tamil.
“Last year, the candidates who took the exam in Bengali lost around 80-120 marks out of 720. This resulted in a disastrous ranking of students from Bengali medium schools. Those with good ranks took the exam in English and scored as high as 440. This forced several candidates from Bengali medium institutes opt for English in NEET 2018,” said former
SSKM teacher Amiya Maity.
He said that this year’s goof-up will make more medical aspirants — who would otherwise prefer to Bengali question paper — opt for English. A student of Jodhpur Park Boys’ School admitted that he took the exam in English out of “fear”, though he is comfortable answering in Bengali.
“The NEET brochure — handed over to the candidates — clearly mentions that in case of any mistake in the vernacular version of the question paper, the onus will be on students. This implies, that in case of any ambiguity, the candidates should consult the English version. The process takes up valuable time, forcing candidates to skip the question altogether. This information from
CBSE may have resulted the drop,” said a health department official.
This year, though the question papers in all 11vernaculars were same, the Bengali translation was very poor. “There are 180 questions and the number translation errors are high. In some cases, the Bengali words used to explain particular Biology, Physics or Chemistry terminologies were completely wrong,” Maity pointed out.
Senior government school teachers explained that earlier — when
West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board conducted medical entrance tests — most seats were bagged by Bengali medium students. They were accustomed to the syllabus. “This year though, most medical college seats in state are likely to be filled by students from other boards,” the official rued.
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