NEET in crisis, NET junked, now CSIR-NET pushed back

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday postponed the joint Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and University Grants Commission (UGC) National Eligibility Test (NET), adding more fire to an already raging controversy over alleged irregularities in the medical entrance test and the cancellation of the UGC-NET earlier this week.
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The decision by NTA to cancel the June edition of the CSIR-UGC-NET — the exam for postgraduatescience students is held twice a year — will raise further questions about the role of the agency and the processes followed by it, and stoke an already stormy political row.
The move came two days before the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha where the irregularities around three premier examinations, which affect a total of 3.5 million students across the country — 2.4 million who sat for NEET, 900,000 who appeared for NET, and 200,000 who registered for CSIR-NET — is likely to be a major flashpoint between the government and the Opposition.
“The joint CSIR-UGC-NET Examination June-2024 which was scheduled to be held between 25.06.2024 to 27.06.2024 is being postponed due to unavoidable circumstances as well as logistic issues. The revised schedule for the conduct of this examination will be announced later through the official website,” NTA said in a circular on Friday evening.
A senior NTA official said on the condition of anonymity that with the cancellation of the UGC-NET, and the retest of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for 1,563 candidates, it was not possible to conduct another examination immediately.
“NTA will soon reschedule the exam and declare results at the earliest so that the academic session does not get affected,” added the official.
But this is unlikely to douse the fire surrounding allegations of mismanagement, corruption and paper leaks that is now dogging not only three premier examinations but also NTA.
The joint CSIR-UGC-NET is conducted to screen Junior Research Fellowships (JRF), assistant professors and doctoral admissions in select science courses.
The exam — which is independent from UGC-NET and is considered tougher — is conducted twice a year in June and December in five subjects: Chemical Sciences; Earth, Atmospheric, Ocean and Planetary Sciences; Life Sciences; Mathematical Sciences; and Physical Sciences in computerised format.
The results of the test are accepted for admissions in all premier institutions offering PhD courses in these disciplines, including IITs, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) and top research institutes funded by CSIR.
The December 2023 edition of the exam saw 175, 000 students take the test. This time, more than 200,000 students had registered for it. Their futures will now be in limbo until NTA announces new exam dates.
The controversy began with this year’s NEET after allegations surfaced that in one centre in Rajasthan, students appearing for the Hindi medium test got question papers in English amid reports of torn OMR sheets and delay in distribution of question papers. A case was lodged in Patna over an alleged paper leak, after which the police arrested 13 people involved in solving question papers and supplying answers as part of a racket. The arrested people include four examinees.
For weeks, protests swept across India as thousands of students hit the streets amid allegations of question paper leaks, inflated marking and arbitrary allowance of grace marks, even as opposition parties called for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the allegations. The Supreme Court, which allowed NTA to withdraw grace marks to 1,563 students and conduct a retest for them on June 23, is set to hear a raft of petitions on the issue on July 8.
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Then, on Wednesday evening, the education ministry cancelled the UGC-NET examination and said the integrity of the process may have been compromised. The June edition of the exam was held on June 18 with 908, 580 candidates appearing at 1,200 centres, taking the test 83 subjects using pen and paper on OMR sheets.
But 24 hours later, the ministry said that UGC, India’s higher education regulator, received certain inputs from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the home ministry on the examination.
On Thursday, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan shed further light on the decision. He said that the agency that tracks cyber crime for the Union home ministry informed UGC at 3pm on Wednesday that a specific question paper of UGC-NET set was leaked on the darknet.
“We tallied the questions on darknet with the original UGC-NET questions and they matched. We immediately decided to cancel the paper, and order a CBI inquiry into the matter. All these activities take place on Telegram these days. It is a challenge to track the complex nature of Telegram without a high level investigation,” the minister said.
The debacle prompted the Opposition to call for his resignation. The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a first information report (FIR) against “unknown persons” on the complaint of K Sanjay Murthy, education secretary, and handed over the probe to its Anti-Corruption Branch, Delhi unit.
On Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met a group of NEET aspirants and vowed to take up the exam issue “personally” in Parliament.
“I want to talk to the 24 lakh NEET students. From the streets to Parliament, we are with you. I want to tell you that you are not alone. In the last ten years, 70 times exam papers have been leaked and two crore youth have suffered. We will fight together and win it,” Gandhi said in a video message.
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Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh told HT that the party also wanted a Supreme Court-monitored probe and the system adopted by NTA to be reviewed thoroughly. “Power is in your hands,” Gandhi said in his message to all NEET aspirants, “Your aspirations, your vision will become the country’s vision. If the government can’t protect you, the Opposition will.”