NEET Scam: A matter of fair and equal opportunity

Author- Mehak Sharma, Student  At Amity Law School, Noida

Introduction

In our country, there are some Examinations that change the fate of the entire family. For similar papers, children prepare and work hard for times. Numerous people in India must have taken competitive examinations. We all flash back to the anxiety pressure and indeed the fear of depression during similar competitive examinations. Especially when a cut-off is left with just a few marks. That dream becomes an agony. Commodity analogous happened this time due to NEET’s cut-off. It came suddenly veritably high. The results of the pre-medical test NEET caused a commotion all over the country. Although 2.3 million students took this test this year, It is not just about these 2.3 million students it is about every student in the country who expects to get a fair chance to get admission to a good college. Some Students scored similar scores that are not mathematically possible. In the name of grace marks, rank affectation happened, from one centre perfect score of 8 people, police arrested the indicted in the case of paper leak, the NTA national testing agency did not answer the questions duly and also the result declaration day of 14th June was preponed to 4th June in the middle of the election result.
This is not just a question of a NEET result. It is a question of the entire examination system which has been girdled by corruption leaks and swindles. This is a question for the future of the country. It is a question of a matter of fair and equal opportunity. What stopgap will be left for the future of the country? Is this translucency they talk about?

What actually happened?

National Eligibility Entrance Test or NEET. It is a nationwide medical entrance examination. It was started In 2016. Before this there was an entrance examination called AIPMT or All India pre-medical test and different states conducted entrance examinations at the position. From 2016 to 2018 NEET was organised by CBSE. In 2019 this examination was organised by NTA National Testing Agency. This examination is of 3 hours and 20 minutes which is 200 minutes, The paper is full of multiple choice questions, and answers are filled in the OMR sheets. It is checked by the computer, there is no human intervention at least in checking. There are 4 subjects physics, chemistry, zoology and botany. In each subject 50 questions, in which a maximum of 45 questions are considered for evaluation. An aggregate of 180 questions. 4 marks for every correct answer. -1 mark for every wrong answer. That means if you have answered 180 correct answers and got full marks, your maximum score will be 720 marks. 720 is veritably important to expose the scam, indeed before this time result, numerous had problems with the NEET exam. Due to centralization, the paper set in Indian languages is not duly set which is a big loss for government academy students. Millions of students’ future is now at stake NTA itself had said that NEET results would be released on 14th June. But suddenly without any explanation they were released on the day of the election results the whole country was watching the election results, and the media focus was on the NEET result was not the focus. We were also waiting for election results for months so our focus was also there not on NEET. Perhaps this was the plan of fraudsters. Numerous students were happy with the results. This happens in exams some are happy and some are sad but when students teachers and parents start looking at the results nearly numerous problems and numerous questions start arising. There are 8 toppers whose serial numbers are veritably close so possibly all these 8 toppers were either sitting in the same centre. Moreover, the students also noticed that some marks were also given which is not mathematically possible. If someone has answered 180 out of 180 questions rightly also then how much will he get? 720 marks will be given a magic number. -1 for a wrong answer so under normal conditions a person may score 720 in this exam or 716 or 715. it is mathematically impossible to get between 716 and 720. But this time there are many toppers who have got 718 and 719 and NTA has no clear explanation of how this impossible thing has happened and there is a large problem with all this. That time the cut-off has become very high. The expectation was that the cut-off would be around 625. If the cut-off goes up too much then maybe it will go up to 630. But this time the cut-off has gone up to 650. That means from 720 to 650 30,000 ranks have been filled. For the first time in the history of NEET, such a high cut-off has been reached and every educationalist believes that the paper was not that easy to get this high cut off and if it was a little easier it could have been 4 to 5 marks up and down. How did it go down by 25 marks? It’s amazing. Let’s guess that the students were absolutely brilliant this time. The cut-off has gone up so much but how come 8 toppers from a centre? What is the logic behind the 718 and 719 marks? What is the logic behind 67 students’ perfect scores? On 5th May the NEET exam was conducted and on 7th May Patna police arrested 13 people in the case of a paper leak. They were charging each student ₹3,000,000 – ₹5,000,000 for those leaked papers. An entire racket was busted in Gujarat, education consultancy power, school teacher and BJP leader charging students ₹1,000,000 for helping in the exam. Now this case is going on in the court. The case had reached the Supreme Court and the result should be put on hold. But this was not done. And when the results came they could have been stopped but when the results came there was a clear smell of fraud and then the suspicion started to change into anger. Millions have trended NEET fraud on social media and forced the NTA to explain what is happening. On June 6th NEET press release is released with the clarification, it tries to answer the student’s questions. NTA said that because of the exam‘s competitive nature and higher performance standard cut-off is high. NTA says that one physics question was wrong, the answer key was revised and because of that the 44 students in 67, they got the perfect score. Now let’s come to the most shocking thing. How did they get 718 and 79 marks? Because of grace marks. According to the NTA some petitions were filed in the High Court and in some exam centres due to external factors time was wasted, they got late for their papers or got the wrong papers, there are some physical reasons and for this loss of time, students have been compensated. NTA has given grace marks. NTA has given reference to a Supreme Court judgement of 2018 that if there is a loss of time in a competitive exam then under a set formula normalization can be done. That is grace marks can be given but when students and teachers saw this judgement and read it in a little detail, their suspension increased even more Because this judgement is for the CLAT exam and it has been clearly stated that this judgment has been made for admission to education institutes other than medical and engineering.

Questions that are raised

NTA is unable to answer but students have a simple demand why were grace marks introduced this time? Why not extra time or retest? Where there were problems? How did CLAT judgment apply in NEET? NTA should clarify the grace marks Formula. NTA should clarify if they have checked CCTV footage. Some centres have lost time but they did not file a case. Why is it taking so long in the paper leak case? 13 people were arrested in Patna you have to match the original paper with the one you got from them. It’s been a month and the matching is not done. Why didn’t it happen? Now NTA is saying that they won’t match the stolen paper. Some students want a Re-NEET but what about those students who have worked hard for years to get this rank? It would be unfair to them with Re-NEET. Some want a revaluation after the findings of an independent company, they want to see the time loss, and where to give the grace marks, All this should be told unfiltered to everyone, independently decided, and a re-evaluation should be done. Now the matter has reached the Supreme Court. Alakh Pandey who is famous as physics wallah has also filed a PIL in relation to NEET irregularities. The future of aspirants is being ruined, but there is no strict action no concerted plan January 4th 2023 students protested in Patna over the BSSC paper leak. Police beat them up. How can we anticipate justice in such a country? Most impacted are poor students. Even if the exam is conducted properly the system is so bad that the student’s morale is completely broken. They are made into robots. A machine to solve questions for 12 hours. Trapped in rote learning, expensive private coaching extreme pressure, after knowing all this now in the NEET result it is going to be found out that the paper may not have been conducted properly Or someone has strategically leaked it Or when someone has sold the highest bidder than imagine the effect on the moral of the students. On the other hand in Tamil Nadu a different movement is going on because states should have the right to conduct exams because the paper set in Tamil is not set properly and if you are doing an exam at the national level then the Tamil language or the state language suffers more. There was a time when kids used to protest in JNU and Jamia and everyone made fun of them. Now they understood, the students of NEET, they were protesting for their rights.

Conclusion

Now even the Supreme Court has directed NTA to answer. The Supreme Court has said the sanctity of the exam has been affected so we need answers. After this NTA says that the integrity of this exam has not been compromised. The integrity of this exam throughout the country is not compromised. Integrity refers to the sanctity. The word was used by the Supreme Court. I would like to ask here today which exam has retained any form of sanctity?  In every other exam, we see the same paper leaks? Does our government even care about the future of our country? latest update is that NTA has agreed to remove the grace marks and the 1563 candidates who were given the grace marks now have the option to either retake the exam or accept their score without the grace marks. This is the right solution for the problem caused by the grace marks but what about the other problems? Paper leaks, inflated scores, and 6 toppers from the same centre. NTA is yet to answer on these fronts. Keep raising your voice collectively like this, and remember we must never lose hope. In 2022 more than 13,000 students committed suicide they were depressed because of this education system. It is understandable how frustrating it must be to deal with such a system. But at the end of the day, you need to know and remember that an exam is not everything. An exam does not determine your life so never lose your courage.

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