THE National Testing Agency (NTA) has flipped, yet again. While reports of a nationwide leak of the NEET (UG) paper held on May 4 have left lakhs of aspirants and their parents in despair, the NTA has done just about the only thing it seems to know — announcing the cancellation of NEET (UG), for the second time in three years.
The NTA was launched in 2017 with much fanfare, the main objective being the standardisation and regularisation of all admission or entry point tests for medical, engineering and various other undergraduate streams and even determining the eligibility for the posts of lecturer in various streams.
If one were to review the performance of the NTA over the nine years it has been in existence, it has cancelled NEET (UG) twice — first partly in 2024 and now in 2026 — and the UGC (NET) in June 2024. Given the scale, magnitude and periodicity of these tests (they are held round the year), one may say that three lapses in nine years is not a big deal.
Many in the government are perhaps thinking along these lines and are, therefore, more than willing to allow the NTA to get away with this excuse. They do not seem to be ready to fix accountability or make heads roll.
The fact of the matter is that all the efforts behind standardising and regularising the nationwide tests (for which the NTA was essentially created) have come to naught as the NTA has today lost both credibility and the trust of the nation. An examination or a test of any kind makes sense only if it inspires confidence and trust in those who conduct it and equally among those for whom it is conducted.
If it becomes vulnerable time and again, and is open to rigging by middlemen (whose only interest is to make money out of any situation), then the NTA has to do some serious re-thinking. It also has to re-examine the mode and manner of conducting these tests, the credibility of paper-setters, apart from identifying those who, within the agency, are responsible for the rigging and recurring leaks.
Every time a paper leak in any of these exams is reported, the NTA maintains a studied silence while the CBI goes into an overdrive, makes a couple of arrests, points to the presence of an inter-state network of ‘purchasers’, who, with temerity, buy the question paper/guess paper, circulate it underhand (sometimes a kingpin is also identified and arrested), and once the retest is announced, the dust slowly begins to settle on the controversy, and the nightmare of the paper leak is conveniently forgotten. Isn’t it becoming too predictable and worn-out?
No one knows, or even bothers to know, if those responsible for the paper leak of NEET or UGC (NET) held in 2024 were ever brought to justice. There is never any follow-up on who lost their jobs in the NTA or how many paper-setters were blacklisted.
Let us face it — such malpractices, especially on a nationwide scale, can’t flourish without the collusion of all concerned; NTA officials, paper-setters, coaching centres, middlemen (read influential politicians) and candidates who prefer to put their money where they should have put their hard work instead.
Apparently, there is a nexus operating right under the nose of the government and it is hard to believe that the government doesn’t know about it. It is another matter that it may choose to not do anything to break it. If there are middlemen facilitating the purchase of the paper, I’m sure, there are people within the NTA or paper-setters who are more than willing to sell (both the paper and their conscience, ie, if they have any). After all, it takes two to tango.
Given the fact that the NTA has repeatedly failed in protecting the sanctity, confidentiality and credibility of the tests it is conducting, the government has only two options. One is to disband the NTA altogether (as it has come under a cloud repeatedly) or go for a major, structural revamp in a way that the agency is able to win our trust and confidence through its foolproof methods of testing.
If the UPSC can conduct examinations year after year, with near-flawless professional expertise, maintaining absolute confidentiality and secrecy, why can’t the NTA do the same? After all, both are government-sponsored, autonomous bodies.
The success of the UPSC model points to the fact that such bodies function the best when they face minimal or no political interference in their day-to-day functioning. Let the UPSC model be replicated in the NTA if it has to survive and function.
If the government is really sincere about doing something positive in this direction, it must fix responsibility of senior NTA officials and they must pay for their misdeeds, if any. Apart from nabbing the culprits outside the system, the CBI, too, must turn its antennas within the system and identify the culprits inside.
People will not be convinced by knee-jerk reactions of the CBI or reports of random arrests. They are waiting for the culprits, both inside and outside, to be brought to justice. Just as they are waiting, desperately, for a structural overhaul so that our future generations don’t ever feel cheated by those who are ready to cheat the system.
Let NEET be purged of the dirty tricks that have come to be associated with it over the years, and become truly ‘neat’ once again. Or is that hoping for too much, too soon? Well, time alone will tell.
Although the Education Minister has announced computer-based NEET from next year, it may not solve the problem. In the past, the UGC-NET exam was made computer-based, but was rigged several times. It may be a quick-fix solution, which may not deliver the desired result.
