The paper Leakage is  persistently    plaguing  Indian competitive exam system and recently leaked NEET exam  is not an aberration; over 67 students got perfect scores against the average of two or three per year and  grace marks were awarded to over 1,560 students for non-transparent reasons. The government has cancelled the NET examination conducted by NTA.

The Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education of India established the National Testing Agency (NTA) in 2017.

                            It is   a premier, specialist, autonomous and self-sustained testing organization to conduct entrance examinations( UGC NET, CUET, JEE (Mains), NEET- UG, etc.) for admission/fellowship in higher educational institutions.

               NEET stands for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. The authorities carry out a single-level national exam for medical aspirants, enabling them to seek admissions to medical courses across different medical institutes in the country, thereby scrapping the multiple entrance exams previously conducted at state levels.

WHY OPPOSITION TO NEET EXAM

• Lack of standardised school education, across the country, of good quality.
• Some schools follow CBSE syllabus other State boards.
• Due to such wide variations in standards of education, it is a herculean task to arrive at a mean standard, resulting in bias in favour of CBSE at the cost of other boards.
• The issues like failed school system, large vacancies and inadequate infrastructure, ghost classes that allowed students to attend coaching classes led to mushrooming of coaching classes across the states.
• The biasness of centralised one-size-fits-all national examinations is to the disadvantage of the majority of students especially from rural background and state board students.

The long-term solution is improving schooling quality, decentralizing examinations, and institutionalizing strict oversight and governance to restore confidence and credibility. The examination process should ensure that it does not compromise merit and social justice, and that it provides students from different backgrounds with equal opportunities to pursue their dream of becoming doctors.

        One of the proposal ,for stooping paper leakage, says Education should be out of the purview  of  the  Concurrent List and be listed in State list so that states can manage exams keeping in view te state diversitied and social melieu.

The examination commission should possess its own printing process

The system should directly transmit a digital copy through a code lock to the designated examination center 15 minutes before the exam.

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act

1. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on Tuesday, 6 February 2024. 2024 and received the President’s assent on February 12, 2024. The provisions of the said Act shall come into force on 21^st of June.
2. The Bill aimed to prevent question paper leaks in recruitment exams and penalize those responsible for paper leaks.
3. Apart from individuals, institutions engaging in such activities are also liable to punishments.
4. It aims to enhance transparency, fairness, and credibility in public examinations.
5. The Bill seeks to punish officials or organizations that indulge in such malpractices, students or candidates will not come under its purview.
6. It has provisions for a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine of over Rs 1 crore.
7. The bill mentions offenses such as “leakage of question paper or answer key, directly or indirectly assisting the candidate in any manner unauthorisedly in the public examination and tampering with the computer network or a computer resource or a computer system.”