NEET candidates, parents angry over wasting time in completing formalities

The national-level medical entrance exam has strict regulations regarding security. Representational Image

Medical aspirants across India took the National Entrance and Eligibility Test (NEET), must for admission to medical courses, yesterday. Several students and parents, however, complained about the time lost during the exam for completing formalities - fingerprinting, attendance signature, filling in roll number, and other tasks.

They said they get 180 minutes for 180 questions, and hence, "every minute is valuable". Parents demanded that a regulation be put in place for this to ensure such formalities are completed before 10 am (when the exam begins).

A waste of time
The national-level medical entrance exam has strict regulations regarding security. Not only are students told what to bring, they are also told what to wear and what to avoid. Candidates are called in different slots much before the paper for frisking and other security checks. Amid all this, candidates had to submit their details during the exam, which irritated most of them and their parents.

Aasha Mathew, whose daughter appeared for the exam in Naval Children's School in Colaba, said, "My daughter could not complete her paper because of that [the formalities]. She lost more than 20 minutes in the tasks... After finally completing them, she realised how much time she had lost. So, she skipped the remaining chemistry questions and jumped to physics."

Precious minutes
Calling it unfair, Mathew added that similar complaints had been voiced at other centres. "It was after the exam, when discussions began between friends, it was discovered how others had faced the same problem.

A candidate, Shreya Thomas, who appeared for the test at Rajhans School in Andheri, said, "While the filling of OMR began at 9.55 am, it went on till 10.15 am. Fifteen minutes lost there. Then, during the exam, when we were already stressed, invigilators came around 11.15 am to take fingerprints on the attendance sheet. That took another five minutes as it was done four times."

"They call candidates a couple of hours before the exam for security checks. No student is allowed even one minute after 9.30 am. How then can they be so casual about wasting candidates' time while they are writing the paper? There should be specific regulations regarding this," said Rui Kapoor, a parent representative.

A senior CBSE official said, "Attendance has to be taken with fingerprint. It is important that other details too are filled properly. All these regulations are already given in public domain for students and parents, so that they are prepared for the tasks."