New Delhi: Two days after the Supreme Court sought answers from the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Union government on allegations of irregularities in the NEET-UG exam, pointing out that the “sanctity of the exam had been affected”, the Union government Thursday informed the court that it has opted to nullify the scorecards of 1,563 National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test — Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 candidates who were granted grace marks, providing them with the opportunity to opt for a re-test.
The current row revolves around an unusually high number of candidates — 67 — scoring a full score of 720 in the NEET-UG exam.
The NEET exam, overseen by the NTA, took place on 5 May across 4,750 centres, with around 24 lakh candidates participating. Initially scheduled for 14 June, the results were released early on 4 June due to expedited evaluation processes. Notably, 67 students attained a flawless score of 720. Among these were six students from a centre in Faridabad, Haryana, raising suspicions of possible irregularities.
In response to the ensuing public outcry, the NTA formed a committee to address the issues. They are considering options such as a retest for the 1,563 candidates who received “grace marks” due to alleged time constraints or allowing students to keep their original scores without the additional marks.
This controversy adds to existing criticisms of the NTA’s handling of national exams like JEE Main and NEET-UG. Technical glitches, errors in results, and allegations of irregularities have highlighted the need for better oversight and reforms in exam administration by the agency.
ThePrint elaborates on what the NTA is, its duties and how it functions.
Origins of NTA
The NTA operates independently under the department of higher education, union ministry of education. Established in November 2017 with the Union Council of Ministers’ approval, it conducts a range of national-level exams for admission and recruitment in fields such as engineering, medicine, management, and pharmacy. It became operational on 5 September, 2018, and has more than 2,546 centres.
NTA administers various exams including JEE Main, NEET-UG, NET, CMAT, and GPAT. It received an initial allocation of Rs 25 crore for its first year of operations and is funded by the department of higher education.
The NTA has been officially registered as a society as per the Societies (Registration) Act, 1860, and initially administered exams managed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), along with CMAT and GPAT as designated by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
Starting with UGC-NET in December 2018, the NTA gradually assumed responsibility for other exams 2019 onwards.
Examinations were conducted in computer-based testing (CBT) mode at least twice a year and to cater to rural students, examination centres were established at sub-district/district levels, with efforts made to offer hands-on training whenever possible. NEET(UG) was conducted following the guidelines set by the ministry of health and family welfare.
The agency’s origins trace back to the Programme of Action 1992, which advocated for national-level common entrance tests outlined in the National Policy on Education 1986.
In 2010, a committee comprising Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) directors recommended establishing the agency through legislation to ensure its autonomy and transparency. It was modelled after the ETS (Educational Testing Service) body of the US.
In 2013, the ministry of human resource development (now ministry of education) formed a task force to develop plans for the agency. The announcement of NTA’s establishment came in 2017, with subsequent Cabinet approval. Vineet Joshi was appointed as its first director general. Subodh Kumar Singh is the current director general of NTA.
“The rationale for setting up the NTA lies in ensuring that multiplicity of entrance examinations leading to stress on the students is addressed in a comprehensive manner by formulating a uniform entrance examination for admissions in different branches of higher learning,” the HRD ministry had said in a statement.
In terms of governance, NTA is administered by a governing body comprising a chairperson, a secretary, and several officials representing different national-level institutes.
Also read: ‘I didn’t fail the exam, system failed me’—NEET 2024 students go back to preparing again
Controversies surrounding the agency
In the NEET (UG) 2020 examination, the NTA mistakenly reported that Vidhi Suryavanshi from Chhindwara district, Madhya Pradesh, had scored only 6 marks, which was later discovered to be inaccurate after Suryavanshi took her own life. Vidhi’s response sheet revealed that she had actually scored 590 marks.
The same year, Mridul Rawat was initially declared by the NTA as having received very low marks. Rawat contested this decision and, after re-evaluation of his OMR sheet and answer key, it was revealed that he was, in fact, the all-India topper in the ST category.
A resident of Gangapur town of Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan, Rawat was earlier given 320 marks by NTA but after re-checking his answer key, the 17-year-old was sure he had scored more and reached out to the NTA via an X post. He then received an email which said he had scored 650 marks and was declared the all-India ST topper. He was subsequently issued a second marksheet where the sum of his marks was 650 but, according to him, still had 350 written in words.
The NTA denied Rawat’s claims, with the then director-general Vineet Joshi stating that the reported score of 650 was false, and that the complaint was being filed with the cybersecurity cell under the IT Act.
ThePrint reached Joshi via calls but he refused to comment on the controversies and distanced himself from any NTA proceedings.
The NTA also faced widespread criticism for the mismanagement of the JEE (Main) 2022 examination, which saw technical issues for many students, resulting in lower scores. Additionally, glitches in the answer key and response sheets were also reported.
In 2024, the NTA received backlash over alleged irregularities in the difficulty level of question papers for JEE (Main), leading to the normalisation of marks and subsequently, lower scores for candidates.
During the JEE Main 2024 Session 1, there were allegations from some students regarding errors in percentile calculation and uneven distribution of candidates across shifts after the results were announced. Many students alleged a difference in the JEE Main marks and the scored marks, claiming that two of the shifts had more students compared to others, leading to discrepancies.
NTA clarified that the allocation of exam dates, shifts, and slots is randomly determined by the computer through a normalisation process. They emphasised that question papers of similar content were prepared and randomly assigned to each shift, without prior knowledge of their difficulty levels.
According to NTA, the varied difficulty levels in question papers are an inherent aspect of multi-shift examinations, and that there is no direct equivalence between raw and normalised scores. It added that the normalisation procedure, based on percentile scores, aims to ensure fairness for all candidates regardless of the exam’s difficulty level and that the JEE (Main) 2024 Session 1 was conducted in accordance with standard norms and procedures for high-stakes examinations, providing equal opportunities for all candidates.
In the same JEE exam’s Session 2 in April, the NTA reported one case of impersonation and nine cases of cheating, or unfair means.
Offenders were identified through AI-enabled monitoring and biometric verification, with 39 candidates disqualified for three years due to involvement in unfair practices, the agency said.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Thursday refuted accusations of a paper leak in the NEET-UG medical entrance examination, amid student protests over the results. He stated that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate these allegations.
Kerala Congress Thursday also criticised the Union government for selecting Pradeep Kumar Joshi, the NTA Chairperson, to investigate the NEET results controversy, citing his role as the head of the agency responsible for conducting the exam.
Also read: Grace marks cancelled, but concerns of NEET aspirants’ remain — ‘paper leak was main issue’