NEET: As students protest against ‘irregularities’, NTA faces all-round flak in TN

Scores of parents and NEET students from Tamil Nadu have filed complaints with the Union Health Ministry against alleged irregularities in the recent NEET entrance exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

They have raised issues such as the leak of question papers, teachers allegedly bribed to help students at examination centres, and a batch of students from one centre in Haryana scoring identical marks.

Many educationists and parents have raised an alarm about the manner in which the NEET exam was conducted this year and questioned the very functioning of the NTA.

Government action

So far, the NTA has issued two statements on actions taken against irregularities.

Subodh Kumar Singh, the NTA director-general, has announced that a panel reviewing the issue of grace marks would submit a report within one week. Singh also reiterated on Saturday (June 8) that there was no paper leak and added that the higher education ministry had set up a panel to re-examine the results of over 1,500 students awarded grace marks this year.

Also, a couple of teachers, including a deputy superintendent of one centre, were arrested in Gujarat for trying to help candidates clear the exam by charging Rs 10 lakh.

Thirteen people were arrested in Bihar for their involvement in leaking the NEET question paper.

Students' protest

However, despite these assurances, students are understandably upset with the results.

Members of the CPI(M)-backed Students Federation of India (SFI) organized a protest in Chennai on Saturday, demanding a ban on NEET and an investigation into the alleged irregularities.

Tamil Nadu fury

Cutting across party lines, politicians from Tamil Nadu, including from the ruling DMK, the main opposition AIADMK and the PMK, a part of the NDA alliance, have called for a serious investigation into the exam.

They have called for re-examination in all the centres and demanded that the test be banned from next year.

Chief minister MK Stalin said the entrance test goes against social justice and federalism.

Impossible marks

In his post on X, he said: “Trends emerging from the latest #NEET results have once again vindicated our principled opposition to the exam.”

Issues such as question paper leaks, clustering of toppers at specific centres, and the award of marks — which are mathematically impossible — under the guise of grace marks highlight the pitfalls of the current Union government.

PMK founder S Ramadoss said it was time to put an end to a “useless entrance examination” as the irregularities in the NEET examinations were evident from 67 students scoring the maximum mark of 720.

Mystery of toppers

He also pointed out that six students from a single centre in Haryana had scored 720 marks and 44 others who gave the wrong answer to one question had also been given 720 marks.

Demanding a re-examination for the 2024 admissions, he said NEET should be scrapped in 2025.

Father’s lament

K Chandran, the father of a NEET student from Chennai, has moved the Union Ministry to intervene in the investigation.

“My daughter couldn’t clear the exams in the last two years. She scored 80 per cent marks in school exams but couldn’t crack NEET. This third time she was confident of clearing it but the result was not in her favour for the third time. We suspect the manner in which the exam is conducted and how hundreds of students in north India clear the exam with ease,” Chandran told The Federal.

He added that his daughter had lost interest and would abandon her aspiration as she was fed up with the exam pattern and irregularities.

IMA protests

The Junior Doctors Network of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) as demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the record number of students scoring perfect scores.

IMA members demanded to know why NTA came up with new rules on grace marks after the exams.

“Some students have scored 718 and 719 marks, which is statistically questionable. There has been no defined logic for the grace marks given to these students.

“Also, the question paper was leaked in many locations, but why has no action been taken? The provision for grace marks due to time wastage should have been disclosed before the exam," the NTA members said in their letter.

Role of coaching centres

Educationist Prince Gajendra Babu called the NEET exam a commercial gamble.

“It is not to test the aptitude and attitude of students. Right from the beginning, this exam has only benefited coaching centres and the market that depends on it. The magnitude of discrepancies is increasing every year. Irregularities have reached a peak,” he told The Federal.

He said the government must reconsider conducting the NEET exam as the number of complaints against the exam and the agency that conducts it were on the rise every year.

Why the stink

The NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) is a single-level national exam for medical aspirants that enables them to seek admissions to medical courses across different medical institutes in the country.

The exam took place on May 5. Some 23.33 lakh students wrote the test across 4,750 centres in India and in 14 places outside the country.

As many as 67 candidates ranked first, including eight students from a single centre in Haryana, raising doubts about the exam’s integrity.

Why early results?

The premature announcement of the NEET exam results on June 4, coinciding with the of the Lok Sabha election results, triggered several questions.

A group of students in Kanpur held a protest on June 6, raising questions against the NTA for announcing the results on June 4 whereas the results were supposed to be declared only on June 14.

There have also been issues regarding online registration, incorrect distribution of question paper in Rajasthan as well as question paper leaks in Gujarat and Bihar.