Explained: Why do students want NEET-PG 2022 delayed?

New Delhi, May 15: A large number of medical aspirants are demanding the government to postpone the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) or NEET PG, scheduled for May 21.

The NEET is a common entrance exam taken by students nation-wide, who aspire to pursue MBBS or any other medical course.

Why do the students want the NEET 2022 postponed?

Students have said that the counselling process for NEET 2021 ended late thus leaving them less time to prepare.

The NEET exam originally held in January, was conducted the whole year as final-year MBBS students across the country were deployed for COVID-19 related duties.

Candidates feel that it is difficult for them to prepare for the examination when they are in the middle of the counselling process for last year's examination and had no time to prepare at all.

Why is the government reluctant to relent?

However, the government has said that there is no plan to change the date of examination.

"Two batches of PG in medical colleges are already derailed because of unavoidable reasons which pushed the NEET PG examination," a senior official was quoted saying by Money Control,

"We now want to restore normalcy by holding the examination earlier than last year. Also, changing the examination date will incur additional costs," he said.

In its letter, the IMA said the NEET-PG 2021 was held 5 months after the scheduled date in September 2021.

Then the counselling scheduled to begin from October 25, 2021 was also initiated (in January, 2022) after a delay due to pending decision on seat reservations and was further delayed owing Supreme Court ruling of March 31, 2022, which ordered the cancellation and conduction of special round of counselling for the Mop-up round.

As a result of the delayed counselling schedule, NEET PG 2022 was deferred from April 2022 to May 2022, so that the candidates could appear for the final stray vacancy round of NEET PG 2021 and can still have plenty of time for preparation and reappearance for the next NEET PG 2022 exam, if they failed to secure a seat this year, the IMA said.

"However, the AIQ Counselling anticipated to be completed by the end of March 2022, is still in process and is uncertain that it will end by May 7th. Several States will also be finishing the counseling around the middle of May 2022. The difference between NEET PG 2022 exam date and completion of 2021 counseling is too short for an aspirant to prepare and appear for an extremely difficult exam like NEETPG," the IMA said in the letter.

Another "innocent five to ten thousand interns, who served as COVID warriors during COVID-19 pandemic, are ineligible to appear for NEET-PG due to delay in completion of their final examination and consequently their internship beyond eligibility criteria set for the examination", the letter highlighted.

Students and medical associations have called for urgent consideration of postponement of the NEET PG 2022 for a reasonable period of time, so that, the current NEET-PG2021 aspirants have adequate time to prepare and appear for the upcoming NEET-PG 2022 examination and the eligibility of all interns is also ensured.