The attendance was 80 to 90 per cent at many of the venues of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), through which all medical colleges in India admit students to their undergraduate courses, in the city on Sunday.
Examinees said the availability of Metro trains made it easier for them to commute from their homes to their respective venues.
Each of the 66 venues in Calcutta was allotted 200 to 900 candidates. “The attendance across most of the centres in Calcutta was about 80 to 90 per cent. The state administration and the police helped maintain social distancing outside the centres and also when the candidates entered and left a venue,” said an official associated with the exam.
At a venue off EM Bypass, 717 of the 840 candidates turned up. At a Ballygunge centre, the turnout was 241 out of 300. Of the 780 candidates allotted to a Salt Lake centre, 690 turned up; of the 240 students assigned a centre near Rabindra Sadan, 191 wrote the exam; and of the 540 assigned a venue in central Calcutta, 451 appeared.
In contrast, the attendance in the JEE (Main), held earlier this month, varied between 30 and 50 per cent in the city. The exam, also conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), was held across six days in only two centres in the city.
The NEET candidates had to wear masks provided at the centres. At many venues, they wore gloves, too. “It was a little difficult to fill in the OMR sheets and turn pages wearing gloves,” said Ankan Maity, a Jadavpur resident who wrote the exam in Dum Dum. “Not just the exam, we were also worried about the infection.”
According to the NTA guidelines, no more than 12 candidates were to be in each room.
“We had followed all the protocols specified by NTA for the safety of the candidates…. We provided PPE kits to the guards at the gate,” said Loveleen Saigal, the principal of Birla High School.
Several schools across the city opened their gates to students after a period of almost six months. “It was like a mock drill for us,” said Saigal.
“Initially, we were jittery. After a gap of so many months so many people were coming to the school, but it went off well,” said Sanghamitra Mukherjee, the rector of Gokhale Memorial Girls’ School.
Srijan Moitra, who lives in Sinthee, took Metro to reach his exam centre in Narendrapur. “Had there been no Metro, I would have had to cover the distance of 25km in a hired car or an app cab. It would have taken more time and been more expensive,” said Srijan.
Not all candidates, however, were that fortunate. Basanti Paul had to travel from a village in Bagnan, in Howrah, to write the exam at a centre in Mandirtala, near Shibpur. She started at 8.30am and reached home at 7.30pm.
