NTA Under Government Scrutiny: NEET Examination Fraud Points Direction Towards Deep Corruption and Incompetence in India’s Education System, How Time Loss and High Cutoffs Are Crushing Students’ Hopes and Raising Suspicions

Exams have been conducted for years, why suddenly time loss in so many centers?Why is NTA silent? Government and NTA’s Inaction on Paper Leaks and High Cutoffs Betrays Millions of Aspiring Doctors

National Eligibility cum Entrance Test or NEET is a nationwide medical entrance examination. It was started in 2016. Before this, there was an entrance examination called AIPMT or All India Pre-Medical Test, and different states conducted entrance examinations at the same level. From 2016 to 2018, NEET was organized by CBSE. In 2019, this exam was organized by the National Testing Agency (NTA) set up in 2017 under the BJP Government.

Many people in India must have taken such competitive exams. The anxiety, tension, and even the fear of depression, especially when a cutoff is left with just a few marks, is persistent. That dream becomes a nightmare. Something similar happened this year due to NEET’s cutoff. It unexpectedly became very high.

Some students scored such scores that are not mathematically possible. In the name of grace marks, rank inflation happened. From one center, perfect scores of 8 people were there. Police arrested the accused in the case of a paper leak.

NTA, the National Testing Agency, did not answer the questions properly. Moreover, the result declaration day of June 14 was pre-poned to June 4 in the middle of the election result.

For how long a student’s future will be played out in our country, some exams change the fate of the entire family. For such papers, children prepare and work hard for years. Parents even mortgage gold and get their children to do good coaching, which increases their chances.

A single exam is a hope that will change their fate. Maybe their family will come out of poverty. Or their social acceptance will increase. What is NEET? Why is it in the blind spot? What are student demands? And why is it a corrupt and ineffective examination system? This is not just a question of a NEET result.

It is a question of the entire examination system, which corruption, leaks, and scams have surrounded. This is a question for the future of the country. It is a question for future doctors and future engineers. And it is a matter of fair and equal opportunity. 

Political Reactions and Calls for Accountability

Akhilesh Yadav raised his voice, asking the court to take Suo Moto cognizance. Akhilesh Yadav alleges a big scam behind the results. He quoted, ‘Exams turning into business under BJP rule.’ In fact, this is the opposition saying that big questions are being raised because fraud and paper leaks during examinations aren’t really new.

Opposition is taking on the NDA over this particular NEET issue, and now an SSP Chief is tweeting on X that there should be reexamination if such a scenario happens. He is also questioning the paper leak and many such issues and he even said that the Supreme Court must intervene in this particular matter and some inquiry should also be initiated in this specific matter. 

Those who are involved in this particular thing must be punished, and something could be done so that in the future, nothing like this could happen because it’s just not about a few people. It’s about the future of lakhs and crores of students.   

Rahul Gandhi has strongly condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the NEET results scam. Here’s what he had to say,  

“The news of the NEET exam paper leak is a betrayal of the dreams of over 2.3 million students and their families, these young minds who have just passed. Their 12th grade with hopes of getting into college or those brilliant youths striving for government jobs are all suffering under the Modi government. The administration has become a curse for everyone for the past decade. The inefficiency of the BJP government has cost the youth and their families dearly, ruining their Futures.” 

The youth now understand the stark difference between merely making promises and actually governing a country effectively. Suddenly, after a long time, at least issues related to students have become political, which means that there will be some intervention. 

Kapil Gupta, CEO of NEETPREP, stated the matter is real. The cutoffs have been going very high since the time NTA took over in 2019. What needs to be addressed is if, after scoring 720 out of 720, you don’t get a Tally. What is The credibility of the exam if you still have to take out a lottery to decide who will get in and who will not? What is the point? 

Just might as well use board exam results, do a lottery, and decide who gets to go into the best colleges in the country. NTA was specifically created to conduct exams around the country. NEET is a very, very big exam. The quality of the exam is getting compromised with the kind of papers which NTA has been setting and that has to be put to a full stop.

Even before this year’s results, many people had problems with the NEET exam. This undermines the power of state governments. Due to centralization, the papers set in Indian languages are not properly set, which is a big loss for government school students. Every year, complaints are made. But complaining, asking questions, and highlighting wrong things are not taken into consideration.

NTA and BJP Connection 

The National Testing Agency (NTA) was established in 2017 under the BJP government. It was meant to bring transparency and efficiency to the examination process. But from the time of its establishment, it has been constantly facing major allegations. Despite the serious allegations, the government has consistently failed to take any meaningful action against the NTA. 

Look at a report by Indian Express. In the last five years, 41 cases of paper leaks impacted 1.4 crore students. In Rajasthan and UP, teacher eligibility tests were leaked. In Karnataka and Assam, police recruitment. In Telangana, an engineer recruitment exam, somewhere before the exam, starts circulating on WhatsApp. Somewhere state employee steals the paper and distributes it, and someone hacks the server and takes out the paper. 

The future of aspirants is being ruined, but there is no strict action, no concerted plan. January 4, 2023 – students protested in Patna on BSSC paper leak Police beat them up. How can we expect justice in such a country?

This lack of action shows a level of accountability that borders on conspiracy or the authorities in charge of regulating the NTA. It is an indication that there is no accountability and reforms that seek to ensure the integrity of the nation’s education system is preserved by the government.

On the day of the election results, the whole country was watching the election results. The media focus was on the NEET result was not the focus. Everyone was also waiting for election results for months so the focus was also there, not on NEET. Maybe this was the plan of the fraudsters. Many students were happy with their results.

They got good ranks, and many were unable to cross the cutoff. This happens in exams. Some are happy, and some are sad. But when students, teachers, and parents started looking at the results closely, many problems and many questions started arising.

The students noticed that some marks were also given which are not mathematically possible. For the first time in the history of NEET, such a high cutoff has been reached. Every educationalist believes that the paper was not that easy to get this high cutoff. And if it was a little easier, it could have been 4-5 marks up and down. How did it go down by 25 marks? 

Let’s assume that the students were absolutely brilliant this time. They have given the exam after eating something new. The cutoff has gone up so much. But how come 8 toppers from a center?

What is the logic behind 718, 719 marks? What is the reasoning behind 67 perfect scores?

On May 5, the NEET exam was conducted. On May 7, Patna police arrested 13 people in the case of a Paper leak. Now, this case is going on in the court. But this news, at that time, there was outrage. The case had reached the Supreme Court. That the results should be put on hold, but this was not done. 

Thousands of students are on the streets today and are asking for answers from the NTA. Millions have trended NEET fraud on social media and forced the NTA to explain what is happening.

On June 6, a NEET press release was released with a clarification. It tries to answer the students’ questions. NTA said that because of the exam’s competitive nature and higher performance standard, cut off is high. NTA says that one physics question was wrong, the answer key was revised, and because of that, the 44 students in 67 they got the perfect score.

Now, let’s come to the most shocking thing. How did they get 718 and 719 marks? 

Because of grace marks, according to the NTA, some petitions were filed in the High Court. And in some exam centres, due to external factors, time was wasted. They got late for their papers or got the wrong papers, etc. There are some physical reasons. And for this loss of time, students have been compensated. 

NTA has given grace marks. NTA has given reference to a Supreme Court judgment of 2018. If there is a loss of time in a competitive exam then under a set formula, normalization can be done. That is, grace marks can be given.

But when students and teachers saw this judgement, and read it in a little detail, their suspicion increased even more. Because this judgement is for the CLAT exam, and it has been clearly stated that this judgement has been made for admission to education institutes other than medical and engineering. 

Clearly, there is someone in NTA citing another Supreme Court judgement to get out of this situation.

NTA is unable to answer but students have simple demands. 

• WHY ARE GRACE MARKS INTRODUCED THIS TIME? Why NOT EXTRA TIME OR RE-TEST? 
• HOW DID THE CLAT JUDGEMENT APPLY IN NEET?
• NTA SHOULD CLARIFY THE GRACE MARKS FORMULA 
• NTA SHOULD CLARIFY IF THEY HAVE CHECKED THE CCTV FOOTAGE 
• STEPS NTA WILL TAKE IN THE FUTURE?

13 people were arrested in Patna. The NTA has to match the original paper with the one students got from them. It’s been a month and the matching is not done. Why didn’t it happen? What is taking them so long?

First, SBI spends so much time on electoral bonds and matching. Then, the Election Commission said that they wouldn’t match the VVPAT. Now, NTA is also saying that they won’t match the stolen paper, the question paper, or the leak. Will everyone work only when they are slammed in front of the Supreme Court?

Along with all this, students and educators want a high-level independent committee to investigate the case. Some students want a re-NEET. But what about those students who have worked hard for years to get this rank? It would be unfair to them to re-NEET. Some want a re-evaluation. After the findings of an independent company, they want to see the time loss where to give the grace marks. All this should be told transparently to everyone, independently decided, and a re-evaluation should be done.

Most impacted are poor students. Rich students can go to private colleges, management quota, or abroad. Even if the exam is conducted properly, the system is so bad that the students’ morale is completely broken. They are made into robots. A machine to solve questions for 12 hours. Trapped in rote learning, expensive private coaching, and extreme pressure. After knowing all this, now in the NEET result, it is going to be found that the paper may not have been conducted properly.

On the other hand, in Tamil Nadu, a different movement is going on because states should have the right to conduct exams. After all, the paper set in Tamil is not set properly, and there is an exam at the national level, then the Tamil language or the state language suffers more. So, there should be a concerted attempt to get exams done properly across the country.

Opinion 

There are some serious concerns regarding the NEET exam scam, which has been in the news recently in the whole country. The National Testing Agency (NTA), established under the BJP government in 2017, has been the target of ongoing allegations regarding irregularities and paper leaks. The government’s silence and inaction in investigating these charges raise concerns about potential involvement or complicity.

The NTA’s personal preferences appear to have influenced the selection of the exam centres, raising concerns about the process’s transparency and fairness. The choice of these centres raises questions about the intentions behind their selection, as well as the possibility of influence.

Even though many individuals have accused the NTA of fraud and demanded probes into the organisation, the government has failed to take any concrete action to investigate or address these concerns. The appointment of people connected to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to important posts inside the NTA raises doubts about the government’s involvement in the alleged scam.

Given the seriousness of the charges and the possible impact on millions of students’ futures, an independent body like a court, the Central Bureau of Inquiry (CBI), or a parliamentary committee must conduct a thorough investigation. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) should also look into the allocation and utilisation of funds within the NTA to identify any potential financial irregularities or misuse.

The NEET exam scam is not merely about the NEET exam; it is about the system that has gone wrong in the Indian educational system. The dreams and aspirations of millions of students and their families have been betrayed by the inefficiency and corruption within the system. The government’s failure to set up a fair and open examination system has cost the youth terribly, ruining their future aspirations.