NAGPUR: Well-known activist lawyer Anubha Sahai, who recently took the university exam uniformity issue to the court, has said that NEET-UG 2022 must be postponed looking at the “very logical reasons” pointed out by students.
Sahai told that with previous counselling getting delayed, it made sense to push the NEET-UG scheduled for mid-July further ahead.
“The previous batch’s counselling got delayed, and in some states it is still going on. So, the July 2022 batch counselling and academic schedule will be pushed ahead anyway, as I don’t think there is infrastructure and academic wherewithal to run both batches concurrently,” said Sahai and added, “So if everything is going to get delayed anyway, then why not delay the entrance exam too. This will give students some extra time to prepare.”
Twitter, which has been the primary playground for all previous such demands, again witnessed high number of messages from students demanding postponement. Some said the least authorities could do was acknowledge their request. @DropperNeet wrote: “We Will Respect Your Decision But Please Officially Put Some Notice About NEET ..Mental Pressure Is Killing Us From Inside .. please postpone NEET UG sir”.
Some were worried about other entrance exams during the same period. @rohan22t wrote: “(1) Droppers are getting less than 3MONTHS (2)-Different syllabus exam like CUET NEET JEE MAIN with NO GAP (3) Army nursing aspirants are getting just two months for a complete different exam pattern”. @AIJNSA_official wrote “This year NEET- (UG) – 2022 is scheduled on 17th JULY and the counselling was completed in April last week. While in some states the counselling & seat allotment process was continued even after the release of the notification for NEET (UG)-2022”.
@Uzziepixie wrote: “Not only this affects the mental health of the aspirants but also their parents who had hopes to see they child become a DOCTOR. Does mental health of us matter to you? It’s as request to @DG_NTA”.
The increase in online decible level of students, as they become more vocal in their demands is a good sign, said Sahai. “The demands to either cancel or delay exams at such a scale is something which we are witnessing now only. It never existed before. Many times students approach us for such cases and we take it forward and then there are times when we counsel them, if it does not seem a valid demand,” said Sahai.
She added that interacting with students associations is a great learning experience for her team too. “When they explain things to us with logical reasons to back up their demand, we too realize that they are correct. So it’s a good thing that students are now taking up these issues,” said Sahai.
These demands by students can really gain weight only after it attracts political traction. “I foresee that very soon education and health will become electoral issues. This movement by students is the beginning and as more people become aware of the situation, public representatives will be held accountable for their manifestos regarding education,” said Sahai.
