Relief for students as India decides to hold NEET in Gulf countries

Dubai: Bringing relief to thousands of non-resident Indians and students, the authorities have decided to hold the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) in the Gulf countries.

Revoking its earlier decision against holding NEET-UG outside India, the National Testing Agency announced on X, previously Twitter, that the entrance exam would be held at specific centres in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar.

The National Testing Agency is responsible for holding NEET for admission to professional courses, including MBBS and BDS.

Previously, NEET was conducted in centres at the Abu Dhabi Indian School, Dubai Indian High School, and Sharjah India International School. The upcoming NEET will also be held at Kuwait City, Doha in Qatar, Manama in Bahrain, Muscat in Oman, and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The NEET will be held at 14 centres outside India.

Thousands of candidates in the UAE
About 5,000 candidates will be attending the NEET in May this year. Thousands had taken the test in the previous years also, and several of them were included in the rank list.

Earlier, the Indian diaspora expressed concern over the central Education Ministry's decision to scrap overseas NEET centres. After it revoked its decision, parents expressed relief that students, who had been preparing for the test for long, need not travel to India to take the exam.
The spiralling airfare, too, was a matter of concern for them.

India opened NEET centres outside the country in 2021 following COVID-related travel restrictions. Most Kerala-based entrance coaching centres have branches in the UAE. According to available information, more than 5,000 students are preparing for NEET.

In 2021, 18,72,000 students, including more than 10,64,000 girls, registered for NEET. It was for the first time that girls outnumbered boys (8,07,000) by 40 per cent. Several students from other Gulf countries, too, attended NEET in the UAE. One student even came from Papua New Guinea.

When the NEET was conducted for the first time in the UAE, the Dubai Indian School was the only centre, and hundreds of students attended the exam. The pen-and-paper model exam with a duration of three hours and 20 minutes was held in the afternoon.