NEET Gets Messy

What went wrong with entrance exams like NEET this year and how it affected the ambitions of millions of students

- SONALI ACHARJEE

There seems to be no end to the troubles at the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts major entrance examinations in the country and holds the fate of millions of students in its hands. Over three million have been left hanging with the controversies surrounding two big examinations-the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET-UG, the gateway for admissions to medical courses in India, and the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET), the key qualification for those hoping to find teaching jobs in colleges or to get junior research fellowships. While the NEET exercise is facing allegations of inflated marking and paper leaks since results were announced on June 4, the UGC-NET exam, taken by 900,000 candidates across 317 cities on June 19, was cancelled the same night after the Union ministry of education (MOE) received inputs from the home affairs ministry (MOH) about the 'integrity of the examination being compromised'. The investigation into the UGCNET fiasco will now be handed over to the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), while it is the various state authorities that are still handling the probe into the alleged NEET paper leaks.

UNITED AGAINST NEET (From top left) Students' organisations protest in Hyderabad, Jun. 18; protesters with an effigy of Union education minister Pradhan in Agartala; student Congressmen take out a torch rally in Delhi

The political ramifications of the mess are still unravelling. Union home minister Amit Shah was in a huddle with his counterparts in the education and health ministries, Dharmendra Pradhan and J.P. Nadda respectively, as well as officials from the Prime Minister's Office to decide the next course of action. The Opposition, meanwhile, has called for a nationwide protest on June 21.