The NEET-UG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate) 2024 paper leak fiasco has significantly eroded students' trust in the National Testing Agency (NTA), the body responsible for conducting the exam.
Even when the Supreme Court ruled that a retest could not be justified due to the lack of evidence that the paper leaks were widespread, the hearings brought to the surface a myriad of loopholes and irregularities involved in the conduct of the national-level examination, raising concerns among the student community.
This year, the entrance exam was marred with paper leaks, cases of impersonation and cheating, rank inflation leading to 67 students scoring All India Rank (AIR) 1, issues of non-transparency and other irregularities.
So, what are a few lessons that NTA can take forward for conducting exams in the future?
Now, experts suggest that a shift to computer-based testing (CBT) method, cyber-auditing, expert verification of question papers and other such steps can ensure the fairness of such exams conducted by the NTA in future.
Computer-based Testing
Many believe that paper leaks and irregularities are much more common in pen and paper-based exams like NEET-UG.
Medical education counsellor and NEET expert Gaurav Tyagi, opined, “If the exam is conducted in CBT mode, it would automatically cut out factors like logistics, banks, reducing the chances of paper leaks and any involvement of third-party players in the process.”
A major issue flagged during the Supreme Court hearings regarding NEET-UG 2024 was the distribution of wrong question papers at a few exam centres.
It was revealed that as many as 12 centres used the Canara Bank papers, whence four centres replaced them with State Bank of India (SBI) papers. Hence, only eight centres used the question papers from Canara Bank, which was the reserved set of papers.
Dr Ashwini Dalmiya, Executive Member of the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) and President, Delhi Medical Association (DMA), said that these human errors can be minimised when CBT mode is opted for.
“These are human errors and can be avoided by opting for the computer-based mode of examination. Paper-based examination has several risks and it is almost impossible to prevent malpractice and paper leaks in the setting. NTA should ensure that exams are conducted in CBT mode in exam centres that have been cyber-audited and with functioning CCTV systems,” Dr Dalmiya said.
Professor Karisidappa, former Vice-Chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Karnataka, also expressed that utilising technology for sharing question papers can minimise leaks and other inconsistencies.
“In VTU, we have our own secured server through which the question papers are shared just 30 minutes before the exam. No one can hack our server, it is completely secure. NTA can develop a similar model like technical universities to ensure that there is no foul play,” Karisidappa said.
Exam in multiple sittings, foolproof papers
Another reason that the NEET-UG exam is more susceptible to malpractice, as experts suggested, is that it is conducted in a single shift across the country for a huge number of candidates.
“The paper should be conducted in different shifts, it could be divided zone-wise or any other way. All these shifts should have different exam papers and the scores should be made comparable by the process of normalisation. There are Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools available that can do so with 99.99 per cent accuracy,” added Karisidappa.
Moreover, experts added that NTA must include subject experts while making the question paper and ensure efficiency and transparency in the process.
This year, four lakh students got 5 marks each over a disputed physics question in the NEET-UG 2024 paper, as the Supreme Court emphasised that there is only one correct answer.
Dr Dhruv Chauhan, a health activist and the National Council Coordinator of the Indian Medical Association - Junior Doctors Network (IMA-JDN), said “Firstly, NTA should keep in mind that no questions can be challenged. Whatever they are setting in the paper should be very clear. There should be no question papers with multiple correct answers or ambiguous answers.”
Another major concern that surfaced this year was a huge number of students bagging full scores in the exam, leading to over 300% inflation in the cut-off.
Regarding this, experts said that it is necessary to maintain a certain difficulty level of the question paper, especially considering the large number of medical aspirants in the country.
“It is absolutely necessary to maintain the question paper level from moderate to high so that fewer people can score high marks. It is a medical entrance examination, not an exam for Class II or III students. One must maintain the dignity of an entrance exam,” said Gaurav Tyagi.
No outsourcing, ensured transparency
In the Supreme Court, it was argued that private players, such as principals of private schools, meddled with the sanctity of the exam this year.
“The major issue is that the largest examination of India, which is being conducted by the largest exam-conducting body, is still in the hands of private players. In my opinion, NEET-UG should be conducted only in trustable, authentic exam centres that have been verified by the exam-conducting bodies. There should be accountability and transparency,” Dr Dhruv Chauhan added,
“Transparency is extremely important. So far, NTA has been working under a shadow. This year, none of the students were informed about the grace marks when the results were released initially. These instances have severely hampered faith in the system which is almost impossible to regain,” he added.
It was further pointed out that the NTA should establish foolproof and complete Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for various national-level examinations and ensure their compliance.
Moreover, experts added that the exam conducting body should have its own cadre of employees and not depend on outsourcing for any of the exam-related processes.
“NTA charges Rs 1,700 from each student for the exam. It has enough money to hire people from various government bodies for invigilation, monitoring and other roles. At this time, it is very important that the Centre comes forward with authenticity and efficiency. It should also ensure that the results are verified at least twice or thrice before releasing,” Gaurav Tyagi further opined.
