The cancellation of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is another blot on the record of the National Testing Agency (NTA), responsible for the conduct of some of India’s most important examinations. That many questions in a ‘guess paper’ were found among questions in the NEET-UG examination held on May 3 makes it more serious than the partial cancellation of the test in 2024. The handwritten ‘guess paper’ is likely to have reached thousands of candidates. The leak was detected only days after the test, raising the question of whether similar leaks have gone undetected in the past. While the new dates for the test are awaited, the schedules for student counselling, admissions, and the commencement of courses will be impacted.
The NEET covers about 1.3 lakh medical course seats. About 22 lakh students took the test after months of preparation, which takes a financial, physical, and psychological toll on them. The cancellation and the subsequent retest will cause trauma to many candidates and involve extensive wastage of resources. When the NTA was created in 2017, it was envisioned to improve the examination system and make it a unified, national platform without the unevenness that marked state-level admission procedures. However, the agency has faced questions regarding its processes, charges of paper leaks, and ranking-related disputes. Though the government has assured that the system would be strengthened and safeguards put in place, the paper leak shows that no lessons have been learnt.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has commenced an investigation, and multiple arrests have been made. Many questions need answering. Where and how did the leak take place? Why did the safeguards fail? After the 2024 incident, an expert committee headed by former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan was constituted to reform the NEET system. Were the committee’s recommendations, submitted in October 2024, implemented? Accountability must be established at all levels for this massive institutional failure, and action should be taken against everyone who played a role in it. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, too, cannot escape responsibility for this debacle.
An examination of this scale presents a major challenge because it involves simultaneously holding the test in more than 5,000 centres. But the country has the requisite technical and logistical competence. This failure has occurred at the human level. Fixing the system is crucial to prevent future breaches and restore the credibility of the test. (Source: DH)
