A photo of a public notice purportedly issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA) is being shared on social media claiming that NTA had modified the syllabus for the upcoming NEET (UG)-2024 examination. The purported public notice states that the National Medical Commission (NMC), after having a meeting with NTA and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, decided to reduce the syllabus for the upcoming NEET 2024 examination. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: A public notice of the National Testing Agency related to the changes in the syllabus of the NEET UG 2024 examination.
Fact: The purported public notice of NTA shared in the post is fake. Neither the National Medical Commission of India (NMC) nor NTA had issued such public notice announcing modifications in the syllabus of the NEET examination. When similar messages were circulated in 2020, NTA through a public notice confirmed them as fake and alerted people not to be misled by false information and fake notices. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Upon reviewing this public notice allegedly issued by the NTA, several grammatical & spelling errors can be observed in the letter. It is highly unlikely that a premier government agency would issue a letter with such errors.
The alleged public notice states that it was published on 26 August 2023. When we searched to check whether NTA had issued any such public notice on 26 August 2023, regarding the changes in the syllabus of the NEET (UG) 2024 examination, we could not find any such public notice published on the official website of NTA. NTA as of now did not publish any notice or circular related to the NEET (UG) 2024 examination.
The National Medical Commission of India (NMC) recommends the syllabus for the NEET (UG) examination. The syllabus recommended by NMC for the NEET (UG)-2023 examination can be seen here. To rationalize the decision of reduction in the syllabus by various School Education Boards, the NTA is providing choice in Section “B” for each of the 4 subjects (Physics, Chemistry, Botany, and Zoology) in the examination pattern of NEET. The complete examination pattern of the NEET (UG) examination can be seen here.
The National Medical Commission of India too did not publish any notice or circular informing about the changes in the syllabus of NEET (UG) examination. If NMC had issued any such public notice regarding the change in syllabus of NEET (UG)-2024, several news sites would have published articles reporting that information. But not even a single news website had reported this information on the internet.
In 2020, when similar fake public notices announcing changes in the syllabus of NEET circulated on social media, NTA issued a public notice warning people not to be misled by false information and fake notices. In the clarification public notice, NTA said, “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.” NTA issued several such public notices related to the fake notices attributed to NTA regarding different examinations on social media. A few of such public notices can be seen here and here.
We reached out to NTA for clarification on this viral fake public notice. As soon as we receive a response from them, this article will be updated accordingly.
To sum it up, this purported public notice of the National Testing Agency regarding the changes in the syllabus of the NEET (UG)-2024 examination is fake.
