Rama Krishna Sangem
The Centre is not in favour of scrapping the NEET UG exam held in the country on May 5, in spite of the widespread demands for it, in view of many irregularities, including leakage of question paper.
The central government on July 5 Friday informed the Supreme Court that scrapping the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) entirely would not be rational, despite the exam facing allegations of irregularities. The government further emphasised that despite the controversy there were no “large-scale irregularities” in the exam, which saw 2.4 million students appear. These were submitted to the top court in an affidavit.
. The affidavit submitted by the Centre stated that following the uproar the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had been tasked with investigating all allegations of irregularities. A High Level Committee of Experts had also been formed to suggest measures for effective exam conduct by the National Testing Agency (NTA). So far four meetings have been held by this committee.
The committee has since then come to the conclusion that there was no evidence of a widespread breach of confidentiality in the examination, therefore, scrapping the entire exam would jeopardise the efforts of honest candidates who took the test in 2024.
Additionally, to ensure transparency and fairness in public examinations, the Parliament enacted the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act 2024, effective from June 21, 2024. The Act provides stringent punishments for offences related to unfair practices in public exams.
Big row over NEET 2024
The NEET exam was conducted by the NTA on May 5, 2024, from 2 pm to 5:20 pm IST. The exam took place at 4,750 centres across 571 cities, including 14 international cities, with over 2.4 million candidates appearing.
The committee has since then come to the conclusion that there was no evidence of a widespread breach of confidentiality in the examination, therefore, scrapping the entire exam would jeopardise the efforts of honest candidates who took the test in 2024.
Additionally, to ensure transparency and fairness in public examinations, the Parliament enacted the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act 2024, effective from June 21, 2024. The Act provides stringent punishments for offences related to unfair practices in public exams.
