No plan to merge NEET, JEE with CUET: Dharmendra Pradhan
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has declared that there are no immediate plans to integrate the engineering and medical entrance examinations with the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). Additionally, he announced that no such combined exam will be offered for at least the following two years. However, the minister pointed out that the administration was aware of the potential for integrating the tests.
Why does this story matter?
The minister's remarks come almost a month after University Grants Commission (UGC) floated a proposal for integrating NEET and JEE with Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET-UG). The proposal was pitched to relieve students and solve the problem of overlapping in major national-level admission tests. Notably, CUET is the country's second-largest admission test after NEET-UG which had received almost 14.9 lakh registrations this year.
What exactly did the minister say?
"There is a school of thought on merging CUET, JEE and NEET but the government has not taken any decision on this so students need not be worried about it. There is no proposal to merge as of the date and there will not be any merger even next year. We will not do anything without any prior notice," Pradhan said.
Status quo for next two year
"One idea has been floated but it will take time to arrive at a concrete decision. We will not impose any combined test on students who are in Class 12 and Class 11, who will appear for entrances over the next two years," Pradhan added.
UGC chief floated the idea in August
The idea of combining the admission exams was introduced by University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson Professor M. Jagadesh Kumar in August, and he promised that a team will look into the proposal's viability. According to Kumar, the entrance exam might be a step toward lightening the load on students transferring to other higher education fields.
Policy proposal to ease logistic for candidates and NTA
The commission chairperson had considered the move as a step toward easing logistics for both candidates and the National Testing Agency (NTA). "If the number of tests is minimized, then there is a possibility that from a logistics point of view for NTA, it will become much easier. We can have only one set of question papers for all these subjects," Kumar had said.
