Akshita Tripathi, 19, wants to study at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and become a doctor. After scoring 96.6 per cent in class 12, she spent a year to prepare for the National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduates, and scored 615 marks. She has decided to study harder and appear for the examination once again to improve her score. However, the controversy surrounding the exam has dented her confidence.
Arushi Bisaria wants to pursue PhD in archaeology. She had appeared for the UGC-NET June 2024 exam, which was cancelled based on inputs from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit questioning the integrity of the examination. “The problem is that PhD admissions take place in July-August. With exams cancelled, we really do not know whether we would be able to get admission in this session. We may end up losing a year,” said Arushi.
There are many more like Akshita and Arushi who have been busy chasing their dreams when all of a sudden they find themselves grappling with doubts as the reputation of the National Testing Agency (NTA) lies in tatters. With the NEET mess, the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam and the postponement of CSIR-NET and NEET-PG exams, the country’s premier examination agency has been lurching from one controversy to the next, jeopardising the future of three million students.
As soon as the NEET-UG results were announced on June 4, allegations of inflated marking and paper leaks poured in. Sixty-seven candidates secured a perfect 720/720, while many others got marks in the 718-719 range. The number of candidates who scored full marks were two, one and three, the previous three years. The NTA, which first remained in denial, later conceded that grace marks to 1,563 candidates may have resulted in inflated scores.
Several groups, such as the Students’ Federation of India, the Tribal Students Union, the Democratic Youth Federation of India and the Tribal Youth Federation jointly organised large-scale protests even as students held demonstrations across cities, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The Supreme Court also reprimanded the NTA, urging it to accept the mistakes it committed to at least inspire confidence. On June 24, the agency conducted a re-examination for the 1,563 candidates, but only 813 turned up.
Dharmendra Pradhan | Rahul R. Pattom
While the NEET controversy was raging, the UGC-NET exam, taken by nine lakh candidates across 317 cities on June 19, was cancelled the same night on suspicion that it, too, may have been compromised. The government removed NTA chief Subodh Singh and asked the CBI to launch an investigation. The Union education ministry also formed a high-level committee, headed by former ISRO chief Dr K. Radhakrishnan, to make recommendations on reforming the examination process, improving data security protocols and the overall functioning of the NTA.
The NTA fiasco is turning out to be a political liability for the new government. “Now it is clear that the prime minister who used to silently watch the spectacle every time is completely helpless in front of the paper leak racket and education mafia,” wrote Rahul Gandhi, opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, on X. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the prime minister to consider abolishing NEET and reverting to the system of states conducting the exam.
The controversy sparked a blame game between the BJP and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha said the prime suspect in the NEET leak case was linked to officials associated with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. The RJD shared several photographs of one of the accused with leaders of the NDA and demanded a thorough probe into the “link” between the two sides. In the Lok Sabha, the Congress-led opposition is all set to rake up the issue.
For students, parents and educators, the loss of faith in the system has been particularly distressing. “Hopefully, the government will ensure that there are no anomalies next year and students will be judged fairly for their hard work,” said Akshita’s father, Prabhash Tripathi, who is from Lucknow. “The credibility issues with the NTA have certainly affected the students.” Said Jigisha Saxena, a student from Delhi, “Nobody will be able to understand how much hard work goes into scoring these marks. Not getting a seat after all that because of corruption and paper leaks is very unsettling.”
Sources in the education ministry said that as the NTA was a society under the Societies Registration Act, it was more prone to manipulations as there were fewer checks and balances in place. When the NTA was formed, most of its manpower was loaned from other organisations. “In a new organisation like the NTA, where staff is taken from different departments, the chances of mismanagement are much higher,” they said. “This is clear from the fact that the examinations like JEE and NEET were much better managed when they were conducted by the CBSE.”
At the time of the NTA’s inception, there was a lot of confusion on the processes to select its members, its financial outlay and standard operating procedures. “There are two possibilities that could lead to the situation we have found ourselves in: one, the SOPs are not robust, and two, there are unscrupulous elements who may have penetrated the organisation or the lower bureaucracy,” the sources explained.
Feeling the pressure from several quarters, Pradhan has started talking about reforming the NTA. His remark on India needing a flexible and less stressful exam system is an indication that the government is now open to suggestions. Sources said the government might consider opting for standardised tests like SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) done in countries like the US.
Some are welcoming the government’s intervention to plug the gaps. “Irregularities in NEET-UG is a very sad affair since a lot of youngsters who have been working so hard are under tremendous strain. However, I am happy that the government has taken appropriate steps to alleviate the problem,” said Dr Ajay Swaroop, chairman, Sir Ganga Ram hospital, Delhi. M.K. Ramesh, vice chancellor of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, said the government had taken a tough stand and entrusted the CBI to look into the allegations. “It will cause despair to hardworking students, but it is inevitable to restore confidence in the system,” he said.
Educators, too, stress on the need to revamp the NTA and the examination process. Keshav Aggarwal, president, Educators Society, said the NTA should do a comprehensive analysis of its own work and release all data of the past two years. Maheshwar Peri, chairman and founder, Careers 360, said NEET was not always about meritocracy. “Students with less than 200 marks get seats, while the ones with more than 500 marks do not. A lot needs to be done to improve the system.”
There is also a growing consensus on shifting back to online mode to curb malpractices. “The UGC exams used to happen online, but the rules were changed last year and the exams were taken offline. The chances of paper leaks and cheating are much more. I do not understand the need to change the process,” said Arushi. Her views were seconded by Uday Singh, who runs a coaching centre in Ghaziabad. “NEET should be conducted online. This will solve many issues as it reduces the chances of leakages to a great extent.”
With the Union government taking remedial steps and promising robust action, the focus has now shifted from the states to the CBI probe that follows the paper leak trails unearthed initially by Gujarat and Bihar. Cases have been registered in Rajasthan and Maharashtra as well.
The Gujarat police unearthed details of how at least 26 students from across the country paid Rs10 lakh to Rs66 lakh each to clear the NEET exam. A Vadodara-based coaching centre, the principal of a private school and a teacher were at the centre of the purported scam. The students were told to leave the questions they did not know to be filled later by teachers.
A similar racket came to light in Patna with the arrest of a junior engineer whose vehicle carried copies of NEET admit cards and other documents. The 56-year-old employee of the Danapur Nagar Parishad confessed that he had received the questions before the exam and named four accomplices. Based on their confessions, investigators discovered that the gang members had rented rooms in a boys’ hostel and a school in Patna, where some 40 students memorised the answers a day before the exam. Burnt question papers, admit cards and post-dated cheques were recovered from the location.
The CBI has dispatched teams to Bihar and Gujarat to gather evidence. The probe is expected to scrutinise every aspect from setting questions and printing of exam papers to their distribution across various examination centres nationwide. It is also likely to look into the alleged nexus between the exam setters and the coaching centres.
NTA officials, meanwhile, warned that the controversy could affect undergraduate admissions across Central universities in view of possible delay in the Central University Entrance Test (CUET-UG) results. The single-window test for admissions to a majority of undergraduate programmes at 46 Central universities, including Delhi University, Allahabad University and the Banaras Hindu University, was held in hybrid format in May. The delay could have a cascading effect and hurt the undergraduate admission process across the country.