THOUSANDS of candidates in the four southern States endured a traumatic experience on May 7 when they appeared for NEET.
If preparing for NEET itself was a tense experience, the frisking and the strict dress code that was enforced at the examination centres left the students and parents shocked. Girl students were asked to remove their earrings and other ornaments and leave their high-heeled shoes behind. At virtually every centre, security personnel shone torchlights into the ears of the candidates to detect hidden devices.
What caught the national attention was the incident at Kunhimangalam in Kannur, Kerala, where a girl student was asked to remove her top inner wear when the metal detector beeped.
S.S. Rajagopalan, the veteran educational activist, said: “Despite objections from several quarters, NEET has been conducted throughout the country.
“The humiliation inflicted on students, especially girls, do not bring any credit to the administrators. NEET consists of 180 multiple-choice questions to be answered in just 180 minutes. Each question gives just a minute to respond. If reading and understanding the question takes half a minute, the response time is under 30 seconds, leaving no time for any malpractice. Body search was unwarranted and unwanted.”
Rajagopalan added: “NEET was advertised as one examination for the whole country. But it is now known that several, different question papers were in use.”
T.S. Subramanian
