By Nidhi Jacob
An image of a notice allegedly issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA) claiming that the NTA reduced the syllabus of the upcoming NEET (UG)-2024 examination is being circulated on social media.
However, the public notice is fake and is riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. BOOM also found that no circulars were notified by the NTA on their official website about modifying the syllabus.
The notice states that on August 25, 2023, the NTA, in a meeting with the National Medical Commission (NMC) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare decided to alter the syllabus.
The NTA is a government organisation under the Ministry of Education. It is an autonomous testing organisation which conducts entrance examinations for admissions or fellowships in higher educational institutions.
Fact-check
BOOM ran a search to check if the NTA had issued a notice regarding changes in the syllabus on August 26, 2023, but did not find such a notice on their website.
BOOM also checked the official websites of the Health Ministry and the National Medical Commission but couldn’t find a circular or notice regarding the change in syllabus.
The NMC is the organisation that notifies the syllabus for the NEET (UG) examination. The exam is being conducted by the NTA since 2019 with the approval of the Health Ministry and the Ministry of Education. The exam is conducted as a common National-Eligibility-cum Entrance test for admission to undergraduate medical education in all medical institutions.
Further, BOOM found that the notice has several grammatical and spelling errors. Besides, the entire notice is incomprehensible and the signature of the Senior Director, (Exams), Dr. Sadhana Parashar is not legible.
BOOM also reached out to the officials at the NTA for clarification on the authenticity of the notice via call and email. The story will be updated upon a response.
However, similar claims and fake notices have been circulated in the past. In 2020, NTA had issued a public announcement alerting people not be misled by false information and fake news. “All candidates preparing for NEET 2020 are hereby informed that there is NO change in the syllabus of NEET. NTA does not decide the syllabus, it only provides a link to the syllabus. The link is provided in the Information Bulletin and reproduced again.” Scroll.in reported.
This was also reported by other news publications such as The Times of India, NDTV and India Today.
The NEET 2024 exam will likely be held in May, 2024. However, the NTA has not yet published the NEET (UG) 2024 Information Bulletin.
