Students Can Now Write NEET in Oriya and Kannada Also

Students appearing for the NEET examination this year will now have the option of choosing from eight regional languages, in addition to Hindi and English.

Oriya and Kannada have finally been added to the list of languages in which the question papers will be available. The decision was taken on Friday, 20th January, 2017. The governments of Odisha and Karnataka had raised the demand of including their respective state languages, arguing that not doing so would put the respective state students in a disadvantageous position. Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Odisha had also held the Centre responsible for “language bias.” The health ministry had written to CBSE to consider the demand of the two states.

Earlier students could select from eight languages including English and Hindi—Gujarati, Bengali, Assamese, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu.

Though the health ministry has said that the decision has been taken in consultation with and consent of all the states, there remains a possibility of other states putting forth similar demand. While certainly including the regional language puts the students in a better position to perform in the competitive examination, the task of drafting the questions in multiple languages becomes a tedious one. The health ministry has also hoped that incorporation of Oriya and Kannada not prompt other states to come up with similar ideas.