Sikar: Eighteen-year-old Divyansh Sharma was planning a vacation to Kerala when he received a call from his coaching institute. The NEET exam had been cancelled. All his hard work over the last three years came crashing down in that moment.
It was Sharma’s third attempt, and he had given it his all. After checking the answer key, he calculated that he would at least score 664 marks. With that, he finally paused the hectic, highly disciplined routine he had been following for three years.
“After the exam, I celebrated my score. I was sure that I would get into a good college with this. Now, NTA has snatched away all that happiness and turned it back to pain,” said Sharma, who has now returned to Sikar from Chidawa, Jhunjhunu to resume his studies.
On 3 May, nearly 23 lakh students appeared for the NEET exam across the country. But within days of the examination, the National Testing Agency started receiving complaints from students and parents regarding a potential paper leak. The Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG) later said that a “guess paper” circulating on WhatsApp and Telegram groups had over a 100 questions matching the actual NEET paper. After the SOG’s confirmation, the NTA announced that irregularities had taken place and that the exam would be conducted again.
“We got some reports on 7 May and, as we are committed to a zero-tolerance approach towards any irregularity in examinations, we examined those inputs seriously. Part of the allegations mentioned in the PDF were found to have merit. We decided that nothing should happen which could impact the integrity of the examination,” Abhishek Singh, Director of NTA, told ThePrint.
The aftermath
Soon after the announcement, coaching institutes in Sikar turned into crisis-management centres. Panic calls started pouring in. Coaching institutes began contacting students who had already left town, while parents repeatedly called teachers asking, “What next?”
“We held a meeting on Tuesday and decided to call the students and mentor them. This is a difficult situation, especially for students whose scores were good and who were hoping to clear the exam. Now we need to make a plan to keep their morale up,” said MM Baldodiya, a botany teacher who has been teaching NEET aspirants in Sikar for nearly two decades.
Most students had returned home after the exam, saying their final goodbyes to the city. Many even sold their notes and books, unaware that something like this could happen. Now, they will have to do it all over again—from getting back into the study routine and mental frame to finding accommodation and arranging study material.
“I have just come from Churu after travelling for three hours. I was supposed to go to Mumbai to visit my brother on 19 May. It took me three years to finally plan something apart from NEET. The NTA announced the re-NEET, but they have no idea what kind of mental torture it is to stay away from home and study,” said Sandeep Beniwal, a NEET aspirant who is now looking for a hostel in Sikar again.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)