With botched exams, govt fails students

The cancellation of the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test examination, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Wednesday, soon after the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) (Undergraduate) exam was involved in controversies, raises serious questions about the examination system.

Over nine lakh students appeared for the UGC-NET exam, and about 2.4 million took the NEET-UG test.

While scrapping the NET exam, the Union government announced that the “integrity of the examination may have been compromised’’ and that it would hand over the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). This is an admission by the government that unfair means were employed in the examination, though it is yet to clarify the nature of the unfair means, and who employed them.

While the NEET exam is held for admission to medical and related courses, the NET exam is held for appointment in universities for positions such as assistant professors and junior research fellows. 

The controversies surrounding the exams, which point to grave faults, have dented the NTA’s credibility. The issues related to the NEET-UG exam are in the Supreme Court, which has criticised the NTA and posed some hard questions to it.

The government told the court that the grace marks awarded to more than 1,500 students in the NEET exam would be revoked, and they could appear for a fresh exam. There are charges about the question paper being leaked and abnormalities like too many top rankers.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that “some irregularities in NEET have come to light from specific locations”. There have been serious complaints about the NEET exam in the past few years. Instead of gaining experience from previous years and rectifying mistakes, the NTA has been committing more serious mistakes every year.

Students spend a lot of time, energy, effort, and money to prepare for these examinations. It is wrong to make them reappear for the same examination and undergo mental trauma and face uncertainty.

It should be possible for the NTA or any other agency to conduct a flawless examination when the best technologies are available.

Though Pradhan has promised that those responsible for the mistakes and the crisis would be punished, no one has yet been held accountable. Opposition parties have demanded that the NEET exam be cancelled and the minister tender his resignation. It has also sought an investigation monitored by the Supreme Court.

After so many mistakes affecting the lives of tens of thousands of students, the position of the NTA leadership has
become untenable.