The National Board of Examinations (NBE) will soon announce a revised schedule for NEET-PG within the next two days, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan confirmed on Saturday. NEET-PG, along with several other exams, was recently cancelled amidst controversy surrounding alleged irregularities in competitive tests.
"The date of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Post Graduate will be announced by the NBE in one or two days," Pradhan informed reporters during the Haryana BJP's extended state executive meeting in Panchkula.
Pradhan's statement follows the National Testing Agency's (NTA) announcement of new dates for three exams that were also cancelled. The UGC-NET, initially scheduled for June 18 but cancelled due to suspected exam integrity issues, will now take place from August 21 to September 4. Pradhan had earlier stated that the exam paper was leaked on the darknet and circulated via Telegram, with the matter now under investigation by the CBI.
The UGC-NET assesses eligibility for Junior Research Fellowships, assistant professor appointments, and PhD admissions. In a departure from its usual format, this year's exam was conducted offline on a single day but will revert to the Computer Based Test (CBT) format spread over a two-week period for the rescheduled dates.
Similarly, the CSIR UGC-NET, postponed amid the same irregularity concerns, has been rescheduled for July 25-27. This exam is crucial for admissions to various PhD programs in sciences. Additionally, the National Common Entrance Test (NCET), postponed just before its June 12 commencement, is now scheduled for July 10. The NCET is conducted for admissions to the Integrated Teacher Education Programme across select central and state universities, including IITs, NITs, RIEs, and government colleges.
In response to ongoing controversies and to ensure fair conduct of exams, the Centre recently constituted a panel aimed at overseeing transparent and smooth examination processes through the National Testing Agency (NTA).