The Ministry of Education on Thursday decided to add a centre in Dubai for the medical entrance exam NEET this year. Earlier, the ministry had announced that for the first time the exam will be conducted in Kuwait to facilitate the Indian student community in the Middle East.
"To further facilitate the Indian student community in the middle-east, an exam centre for NEET(UG) 2021 has been opened in Dubai in addition to the one already opened in Kuwait city. This is the 1st time exam centres have been created outside India," tweeted Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
"This is a landmark step taken in the best interests of students and the Indian diaspora in the middle-east, in line with the NEP," he added.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign policy due to the decision.
"#NEET centres in Dubai and Kuwait underline importance of Gulf and Diaspora in PM @narendramodi‘s foreign policy. Commend @dpradhanbjp for meeting the demand," he tweeted.
On Thursday, Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V Muraleedharan also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to allocate centres for medical entrance exam NEET in Dubai and Kuwait. Muraleedhara said that this decision will help thousands of Indian students and their parents.
"Good news for NEET aspirations in Dubai and Kuwait. Grateful to Hon'ble PM Shri @narendramodi Ji for allocating NEET centre in Dubai and Kuwait. This generous decision will help thousands of Indian students and their parents," the MoS tweeted.
NEET will be conducted in 13 languages this year. The languages in which the test will be conducted this year are Hindi, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Urdu and English. Among the languages, Punjabi and Malyalam are the new additions.
The NEET which was earlier scheduled on August 1 was postponed to September 12.
The number of cities where examination is conducted will be increased from 155 to 198. The number of examination centres will also be increased from 3,862 used in the 2020.
(With PTI inputs)
