NEET controversy: School-college shutdown has mixed effect in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The shutdown call given by various student organisations for educational institutions on Thursday has received a mixed response from school and college managements. While many managements sent messages to parents on Wednesday evening informing them about the closure of schools on Thursday in response to the shutdown call, some schools continued to function. “Many children from my society were given leave in response to the shutdown call. But my children were asked to come to school as usual,” said Ravi, a parent who studies in a private school in the city.

The situation is the same with junior colleges as many private and corporate colleges are functioning as usual. Students’ unions – NSUI, SFI, AISF, PDSU, VJS, DYFI, AIYF, PYL, PYC, YJS and AIPSU – called for a shutdown of educational institutions to protest the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) UG 2024 and National Eligibility Test (NET) 2024 question paper leak. They want the central government to abolish the National Testing Agency (NTA), which has failed to conduct the examination smoothly. The organisations demanded that the government compensate the students affected by the question paper leak, as well as the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the issue.