Once again, the matter of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) has reached the Supreme Court, this time due to complaints of discrepancies and issues with the NEET-PG 2024 exam results.
This time, candidates have expressed significant concern regarding the lack of transparency in both the exam process and the results following the release of the NEET-PG 2024 exam results on August 18. A key issue highlighted in the Supreme Court petition is the absence of an official answer key.
While in most major exams, such as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), and the Union Public Service Commission Civil Services Examination (UPSC CSE), it is standard to release the answer keys after the exams are concluded, the same isn't followed when it comes to NEET-PG.
Every year, the postgraduate medical entrance exam is conducted without an answer key. However this year, it especially caused a problem within the community due to two major reasons — distrust in exam authorities due to pre-existing discrepancies in the exam and the implemented normalisation process for NEET-PG scores.
To recall, NEET PG was supposed to be conducted on June 23, but was cancelled on the night of June 22 — barely 12 hours ahead of the exam. The NBEMS later announced that the exam would be conducted on August 11 in two shifts to prevent security breaches, and the scores would be normalised.
Candidates have expressed concerns about the newly implemented normalisation process, emphasising that without an official answer key, the legitimacy and fairness of the NEET-PG 2024 results is in question.
Hope remains
It's worth noting that this year has been particularly challenging for the Indian education sector, especially concerning national-level exams like NEET.
Earlier, the undergraduate counterpart of the NEET exam faced legal challenges due to numerous issues raised by students, including paper leaks, impersonation, and inflated cut-off scores.
However, despite several instances of malpractice being reported, the Supreme Court declined to order a re-examination, citing insufficient evidence of a systemic failure.
Again, on August 9 last month, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition which sought to postpone the NEET-PG 2024 exam over concerns related to exam centre allocations.
So, why are the students still hopeful about a positive outcome in the Supreme Court this time?
Attainable request: Given past trends in legal issues related to exams and education, this time candidates are choosing not to demand a re-examination or cancellation. Instead, they are calling for the release of the official answer key by the NBEMS and the disclosure of students' raw scores in order to ensure transparency and accountability.
Large-scale irregularities: Petitioners have also highlighted that a large number of candidates have been reporting discrepancies in their NEET-PG 2024 scorecards, indicating a widespread issue.
To recall, candidates have highlighted discrepancies between the number of questions they attempted and their scores as shown in the scorecards, which did not align with their expectations. They have also highlighted abnormal inflation in the cut-off ranks this year.
Last-minute changes: Lastly, the medics have highlighted that the exam witnessed several last-minute changes this year, including alterations to the exam date, changes in exam centre allocations, and, most notably, the abrupt implementation of normalisation.
The petition outlines that these changes hampered the integrity and fairness of the examination for candidates who had been preparing for over a year.
