Complaints arise as over 1.28L take NEET-UG in Kerala

KOCHI: The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2023, the examination for those who wish to pursue undergraduate medical courses, was conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) from 2pm to 5.20pm on Sunday.
Over 1.28 lakh students wrote the examination in around 16 centres across the state. The exam was written by more than 20 lakh students nationally in 499 centres across the country and abroad.
However, students faced difficulty in some centres allegedly due to 'poor organization' by authorities. In a centre in Puthuppady in Kozhikode, the exam was begun reportedly after 2 hours of the stipulated time due to delay in distributing the question papers. The students, who wrote the exam at the centre in Mar Baselios English Medium School, Puthuppady, said that in some of the halls at the centre the exam ended only by 7.30pm.
"The authorities said there were not enough question papers for all students at the centre, which is ridiculous and unbelievable, considering the importance of the national-level exam. In some halls, the exam was delayed by at least two hours. In my daughter's exam hall, the question was distributed at 2.15pm only instead of 2pm and it delayed all other processes, including the pasting of the photo, filling of OMR sheet, etc. Moreover, they did not even inform the students that there would be an extra 15 minutes to compensate for the lost time and students panicked. Most of these students have prepared for two years for the exam and such mismanagement and poor organization has affected their performance," said Jayashankar, a parent.
Parents of students who wrote the exam at Sree Narayana Public School, Channanikkad, Kottayam, alleged that there was delay in completing the biometric registration for many students. As protest erupted, the organizers said that the students would be given additional 10 minutes to write the exam. The parents also alleged that the exam centre's gate was opened only at 12 noon while the reporting time was 11am, forcing the students to stand under scorching sun. It was tough for students, especially those who have come from other districts travelling a long distance. It is learnt that the centre had only two laptops for the biometric registration of over 400 students, which delayed the process.
Meanwhile, the questions were moderately difficult for most of the students.
"The questions were lengthy and time-consuming but the exam was not that difficult. The Chemistry questions were a bit confusing for many students. Questions from Biology were easy," said Meghna M J, a student from Kozhikode.