Indian students in Kuwait greeted with joy and relief an India government decision to open a new exam center for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in Kuwait to help the Indian student community in the Middle East.
Indian Ambassador H.E. Sibi George who exerted considerable efforts to get a NEET exam center for Indian students in Kuwait. This makes the center in Kuwait the only one for the NEET exam outside India. “Registrations for the NEET (UG) 2021 can be made at http://ntaneet.nic.in.
For the first time in the history of NEET (UG) exam and in order to facilitate the Indian student community in the Middle East, an examination center has been opened in Kuwait,” India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted last week.
Hundreds of thousands of Indian students were on the horns of a dilemma as they faced the arduous prospect of traveling to India to write various entrance exams during the COVID pandemic. “It is a milestone decision for the Indian community in Kuwait and comes at a critical time.
Since 2019, India’s ministry of health and family welfare has made it mandatory for students to clear the NEET exam, which is the entry examination for undergraduate medical education in India, as a prerequisite to pursue medical education abroad.
“The NEET (UG) 2021 will for the first time be conducted in 13 languages, with the addition of Punjabi and Malayalam,” the Indian minister said. The languages which are now being offered are Hindi, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Urdu and English, he added. Pradhan had on Monday announced that the NEET exam, which was earlier scheduled on 1 August, will now be conducted on 12 September.
The number of cities where the examination is conducted will be increased from 155 to 198. The number of examination centers will also be increased from the 3,862 centers last year. In 2020, the exam was conducted on 13 September amid strict precautions in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 13,66,000 candidates had appeared for the exam, of whom 7,71,500 qualified.