After over four months since its formation, the Central Government committee to review the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA) brought out its recommendations to improve the agency’s operations today, October 30.
To recall, this committee was formed by the Union Ministry of Education in June this year, following allegations of a paper leak in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024, with former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Radhakrishnan.
The seven-member National Task Force (NTF) was tasked with recommending reforms to strengthen data security protocols, improve the examination process, and review the operations of the NTA.
A few notable recommendations by the committee include “rationalising” the number of subjects in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), hiring more full-time, permanent employees, conducting exams (mostly) in the online mode, conducting NEET-UG in multiple levels, limiting the number of attempts for NEET-UG, and less outsourcing to private centres.
Several medical aspirants and doctors are taking issue with some of these recommendations, particularly the capping of the number of attempts, and the insistence of online exams.
The question of accessibility
Speaking more about the issues with these recommendations, medical activist Dr Vivek Pandey says, “Several NEET-UG aspirants cannot afford to have good coaching, and won’t be able to clear the exam if the number of attempts they can have is limited. This is not student-friendly at all,”
He adds that a purely online exam is also not accessible to a lot of students, as not everyone is used to operating a computer, let alone taking an exam on it.
Further, the activist believes that introducing phases to NEET-UG only prolongs the exam. “Students would now have to appear for 30 papers,” he says. However, he adds that bifurcating the NEET into a Preliminary round and a Main round, similar to its predecessor All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) would be a good idea.
Too little, too late?
A few educationists also believe that these guidelines leave a lot to be desired in protecting the sanctity of the exams conducted by the NTA.
“Over the past few years, the NTA has been facing a severe trust deficit — and it has hit an all-time low with this year’s controversies. The recommendations must bring changes that make the students trust the NTA and its ability to conduct examinations,” says Jayaprakash Gandhi, career counsellor and NEET expert.
He adds that these recommendations are still at the proposal stage, and must be tested through trial runs and mock tests to ensure that they work.
“Announcing these recommendations six months before the next NEET UG cycle is unfair to students, as they have to cope with these changes at a very short notice if these recommendations are implemented,” he says.
To ensure that students trust the NTA again, Gandhi says that the exam centres where discrepancies were alleged during the NEET-UG exam this year must be banned, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology must be implemented to flag any discrepancies.
Dr Vivek Pandey opines that the responsibility of conducting NEET UG must be taken away from the NTA and given to the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) or the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
“With these many shocking allegations, the NTA cannot be entrusted to conduct medical exams once again, as the healthcare system of the country could suffer greatly from its lackadaisical approach,” he says.
He further adds that no amount of reform recommendations is sufficient unless the NTA acknowledges that there were discrepancies in the NEET-UG on their watch.
