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Opinion
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| Massive Mismanagement of NEET and NET | | | | On 19 June 2024, the Ministry of Education announced the cancellation of the University Grants Commission (UGC)-National Eligibility Test (NET), which was held nationwide only a day before on 18 June. The ministry pointed out that the UGC received credible information from the National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs, regarding irregularities in the conduct of the NET exam. The ministry’s press release did not divulge any specific details about the information shared by the I4C; however, it pointed out that this information prima facie indicated that the “integrity” of the NET exam “may have been compromised.” In a press conference chaired by the union minister of education on 20 June 2024, it was stated that preliminary investigations reveal that the NET question paper was leaked “in the darknet” (sic), which was later circulated on a social media platform and was found to be matching with the official question paper.
The mysterious and instant cancellation of the UGC-NET exam within a day comes on the heels of the ongoing protests against the alleged mismanagement and irregularities of the National Testing Agency (NTA) after the results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) were prematurely announced on 4 June 2024. The NTA conducts both NEET and NET examinations throughout the country, and a large section of students, parents, and certain heads of coaching institutions have reported several complaints about the conduct of these examinations.
After the results of NEET were announced 10 days before schedule, incidentally on the same day as the results of the 2024 general elections, several suspect irregularities were reported that put a major question mark on the fair conduct of this exam. As many as 67 students got a perfect score of 720 in 2024, which is unprecedented for NEET. In the results of NEET 2023, only two candidates secured the perfect score, while in 2022, no candidate could secure a perfect score. Although the number of candidates who appeared for this exam in 2024 (23,33,297) was around three lakh more than in 2023 (20,38,596), this sudden jump in the number of perfect scores is rather mysterious and inexplicable. The NTA’s press release of 6 June 2024 states that 44 out of these 67 candidates got grace marks due to inconsistencies in the old and new editions of a physics textbook of the National Council of Educational Research and Training, while six candidates among these 67 got grace marks as a compensation for loss of time. In all, 1,563 students were reportedly given grace marks by the NTA. In a press release issued on 13 June 2024, the NTA announced that it has scrapped the grace marks given to these 1,563 candidates and has provided them with the option of a retest on 23 June 2024.
Soon after NEET was held on 5 May, there were reports of paper leaks from centres in Godhra, Gujarat and Patna, Bihar. Petitions seeking a high-level investigation into paper leaks were soon filed in several high courts and the Supreme Court while more petitions were filed in the Supreme Court after the results were announced to cancel the grace marks arbitrarily offered by the NTA to select candidates. On 20 June, the Supreme Court stayed the proceedings in separate petitions related to NEET in the Rajasthan, Calcutta, and Bombay High Courts and transferred these similar petitions to be litigated in the Supreme Court. The apex court has preliminarily refused to order a stay on NEET counselling, scheduled to begin on 6 July, and declined to order an immediate inquiry led by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the matter. However, the Court has stated that even “if there is 0.001% negligence on the part of anyone” with regard to the conduct of NEET, it will be thoroughly investigated and noted that one cannot overlook all the efforts expended by children and their parents in preparing for this exam. The next hearing of the NTA’s petition in the Supreme Court is scheduled for 8 July 2024.
Along with paper leaks, there were several other complaints of mismanagement reported by students in the conduct of the NET exam. Examination centres were situated far from the main cities and towns in several locations with no proper transport arrangements or infrastructure in place, especially for candidates with disabilities. Some of the centres had no air conditioning, storage facilities, adequate drinking water, and even lacked something as basic and essential as toilets, causing considerable risk to the health of the candidates, a situation made even worse by the blazing heat in north India.
Suffice it to say the NTA has come out to be irresponsible and inefficient in the face of these instances of reported mismanagement and irregularities—from being unable to stop rampant paper leaks, arbitrarily offering grace marks to select candidates, to being helpless in ensuring safe and dignified physical infrastructure for students appearing for NEET and NET. The Ministry of Education acted on the reports of paper leaks in the case of NET, cancelled the exam and announced a retest within a day, while similar reports of paper leaks and even more reports of irregularities in results in the case of NEET have not led to the cancellation of this exam. It is fairly evident that NEET, which determines undergraduate medical admissions in the country, is also linked with a massive coaching industry and network of private medical colleges, all of which comprise a highly commercialised system of medical examinations and admissions in India. It is anybody’s guess that the increasing instances of paper leaks in NEET and the desperation of certain parents in being willing to spend hefty amounts of money for illegally accessing such leaked papers are a glaring symptom of the commercialised and ever-competitive nature of medical examinations and admissions in India. In other words, paper leaks are a way for some candidates to buy their way out of the cut-throat competition and hard work required to pass these exams.
NET determines the eligibility of candidates to become assistant professors and also decides upon granting junior research fellowships to students from the humanities background. Starting this year, NET has also become the primary entrance test determining PhD admissions in several universities in the country. This exam is not complimented by the kind of coaching industry as one witnesses in other competitive examinations. However, with the onset of NET determining PhD admissions, one can anticipate a similar trend of commercialisation of NET preparation in India as well.
There is now immense popular pressure on the government to plug the problem of paper leaks and stop other instances of mismanagement reported during the conduct of NEET and NET. The government has promised that the officials responsible for these alleged irregularities and mismanagement will not be spared. However, to what extent these promises would remedy the wasted time, money, and efforts of lakhs of students and console their anxieties regarding the fairness of these examinations in the near future remains to be seen. Students who devoted their whole and soul in preparation for these examinations, in the hope of a better future for themselves and their families, feel a definite sense of betrayal at the moment. It is now the government’s responsibility to assuage this feeling among the students and rebuild an environment of trust and credibility for its examination and testing agencies.
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