No Takers For Regional Languages In NEET Exam, Govt May Soon Conduct It In English Only

The regional languages in India hold greater sanctity when it comes to political battles in the country, but for educational use, English supersedes all other languages including Hindi.

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It¡¯s not a new fact that has surfaced, but with the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) exam, this conjecture got further cemented as out of 13 lakh students who appeared for the NEET exam only 8 per cent wrote their medical entrance exam in regional languages.

The inconvenient statistics

As per the data released by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), over 10 lakh students out of 13, 26, 725 students who took the exam preferred English over their regional languages. The exam had preference to opt Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Oriya, Bengali, Urdu, Telegu and Kannada as option to answer the question.

How the regional languages faired?

Oriya was the least opted language with less than 300 students writing their NEET exam in the language of Odisha as only 279 students opted for Oriya as a mode to answer questions.

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Kannada with 818 students was second least preferred language. In regional languages, Tamil did reasonably well with 24,720 students opting for it. Hindi was preferred by 1,46,542 which does look good, but given the size of Hindu heartland and the number of students appearing from these states, this number is quite unsatisfactory.

Urdu was given as an option for the first time by CBSE and surprisingly 1,711 students marked Urdu as their language to answer the queries in.

Govt mulls removal of regional languages as an option

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Citing that majority of the students prefer English as a medium to answer the question in the exam and also medium of study later after getting into medical field is going to be English, the government might end the regional languages as an option to answer questions in.

It¡¯s easier said than done

Despite the government's plan to discontinue the use of regional languages in NEET exam, its implementation is not going to be easy because before the exam got centralised, the states used to conduct their own medical entrance tests in regional languages.

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¡°There was a huge demand from various states for including regional languages in NEET, since many states conducted their own medical entrance exams in their respective languages before it became centralised,¡± a senior official in the Directorate of Health Services said to The Print.

¡°However, if the numbers in regional languages are not many and students start getting comfortable with English, we might just revert to English,¡± the official said.

Some regional languages, however, have to be included because the Supreme Court had given an order to this effect, the officer clarified.

¡°We will see how it goes, and take a decision on the languages in the coming years,¡± the official said.

¡°This is only until the entrance examination level. Once a student is selected to a college, he/she will have to study in English only. For students from regional languages, the Medical Council of India will have a two-month foundation course to make them familiar with some terms which they might be unfamiliar with.¡±

Some welcome it as well

Many people have welcomed the government's approach to remove regional languages would help students in taking the exam on equal footing. At present, those who have better command over their own regional language have the better probability of qualifying it.

Pankaj Baldi, who has been teaching medical aspirants in Gujarat for the last 18 years said: ¡°Writing an exam in a regional language only gives an ease of access to students who have studied in Gujarati language most part of their schooling. For them, it will be difficult to completely switch to English in Class 10 and 12. Though they also know many terms in English, they are more comfortable in their mother tongue.¡±

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Asked why so many Gujaratis give the NEET exam in their language, Baldi explained: ¡°Gujarat used to conduct its state medical examination in Gujarati, and had 90 per cent reservation for students coming from the state board. This is why most parents preferred their children to study in their regional language. The same trend has spilt over to the national level.¡±