New Delhi/Mumbai: Coaching centres, which train lakhs of students for competitive exams, have expressed apprehensions over the latest National Pre-Medical Entrance Exam following allegations of arbitrary awarding of grace marks and paper leak, while the government has defended the exam authority and the conduct of the test.
In an unusual development, a record 67 candidates topped the latest National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) to select students for medical, dental and related courses. Six of them were from the same exam centre, leading to protests by students and suspicion of a question paper leak.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET, said that the reason for such high marks in this exam is the change in the syllabus and the grace marks given for wasting time at the examination centers. On Thursday, the government told the Supreme Court that it has decided to cancel the grace marks given to 1,536 students and allow them to take the exam again.
Alakh Pandey, CEO of EdTech Physicswala, which filed the petition in the Supreme Court, said, “Nobody won today, but it is a defeat for the education system and a sad day… The issue of paper leak is still unresolved.” On EdTech’s YouTube channel, Pandey demanded an investigation into the entire exam marks database. He said, “There is a question of right to equality. Why was re-examination allowed only for 1,563 students? What will happen to other students who are not part of the petition, especially those living in villages?”
“Arbitrary Grace Marks”
Pandey’s petition claimed that the awarding of grace marks was “arbitrary”. He said he had conducted a survey of about 20,000 students, which revealed that at least 1,500 students were randomly awarded about 70-80 marks as grace marks. The court closed the issue of grace marks in this petition, but kept it pending to consider other complaints.
“The paper leak allegations are still unresolved. And what is the proof that more students were not given grace marks? The issue of grace marks came to light only when students protested against it,” said Pramod Maheshwari, founder of Kota-based coaching institute Career Point. Career Point is a coaching institute in Kota where lakhs of students prepare for engineering and medical entrance exams.
The decision to abolish the grace marks given to 1,536 students was taken after a review by a four-member committee of NTA members and education ministry officials. These students will be informed of their actual marks, excluding the grace marks, and will have the option of retaking the exam if they do not wish to retain their existing marks of the May 5 exam. The re-exam will be held on June 23 and the results are to be declared before June 30 so that the counselling process can be held on July 6 as scheduled. Government counsel Kanu Agarwal told the Supreme Court earlier in the day that grace marks had created an “anomalous situation”.
Nitin Kukreja, CEO of Allen Career Institute, one of the biggest coaching centres in Kota, said, “As we had emphasised earlier in our memorandum to the NTA, we encourage them to provide a comprehensive and specific plan to ensure quality and transparency for lakhs of medical professionals so that there are no flaws in the examination process in future.”
No evidence: Minister
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said no evidence of question paper leak has been found. “I want to assure the students and their parents that the Government of India and the NTA are committed to ensuring justice for them. 24 lakh students have successfully appeared in the NEET exam. There has been no paper leak and no evidence has come to light so far. The model suggested by the court was adopted for about 1,560 students and a panel of educationists has been called for this,” Pradhan told reporters.
“This development is a small but significant victory for us, which reinforces our claim that there are serious issues with the NEET 2024 process,” Shwetank Sailakwal, one of the lawyers for the petitioners in the case, told Mint. “The admission by the NTA shows that there is a possibility of widespread corruption within the system. We hope that the honourable Supreme Court will consider our request for the appointment of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to ensure a completely transparent investigation under its supervision.”
Settlement of the challenge
On Thursday, the Supreme Court disposed of a petition filed by a candidate challenging the grace marks. The candidate had argued that any normalisation formula for awarding grace marks should apply only to questions left unanswered due to loss of time. Additionally, the court issued notice on a separate petition alleging paper leak during the exam and consolidated it with similar petitions.
Besides, a petition filed by Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) members Abdullah Mohammed Faiz and Dr Sheikh Roshan Mohiddin had sought withdrawal of NEET-UG 2024 results and fresh exams citing alleged paper leaks and other irregularities. The court had earlier issued notice on the petition.
