Another NEET examination is over and as usual everything did not go neat at least in some places even though the authorities took all measures to avoid unnecessary confusions and tensions among medical aspirants and their parents. The previous years witnessed aspirants committing suicides due to anxiety and stress and this year too the same things have happened.
That the NEET examination has a destabilising effect on the students is definitely one that has to be taken very seriously by the government and measures taken so as to see that the life of students is not put at risk.
This year too, students suffered as they had to enter the halls at eleven in the morning , undergo frisking and other processes, wait impatiently without food for the exam and write the test for three hours twenty minutes – an ordeal by itself.
The way in which the scanning, screening scrutinising and observing the candidate is done, the parents complain, is of too much hype and creates panic and fear psychosis among children.
In some centres, authorities made a mountain out of a molehill by misconceiving the rules stated by the agency and thereby creating a fearful atmosphere ending up in tiffs and tension between staff and parents. Students also had to face embarrassing situations in the name of frisking. Parents are also worried about the duration of this exam.
A candidate entering the campus at eleven in the morning can leave the campus only at 5.30 in the evening . As they cannot take food during that time, most of them collapsed.
Parents are also of the opinion that even when highly competitive exams like UPSC, civil services etc are conducted in a strict but normal tense free way, why create panic for students who have just come out of their school.
The panic, stress and anxiety expose the way how entrance exams are causing severe mental agony, panic and pressure among young students. This pinpoints to how much mental tension students experience and exposes certain flaws in the exam system and the societal beliefs prevalent which focusses only on marks, passes , ranks and success.
Parents and teachers have to inculcate in children the mentality to face problems with courage. They have to be taught to accept failures and learn lessons from it. Let our youngsters understand that life is not just exams, marks and ranks but it is something more than that.
Parents and teachers can play a vital role in shaping and guiding the youngsters. Let them also understand that other than the conventional professional careers – engineering and medicine – there are hundreds of courses
which have very good scope for the younger generation and which aptly suits their interest and capability.
Career counselling should be made part of school education.
