The National Testing Agency (NTA) declared the NEET-UG 2024 results on June 4, when most of India had its eyes on the results of the Lok Sabha election. The results led to many controversies. While alleged paper leak became a matter of concern when the exam was held on May 5, the results brought out discussions over rank inflation, grace marks and students from same examination centre securing top ranks. This is the first time in the history of NEET that 67 students have got full marks- 720/720. The cut-off went up exponentially, leaving many students worried about securing a government medical college seat.
Though primarily it was not revealed, later NTA confirmed awarding grace marks to several students to compensate for the alleged lost time at the exam centre. Several critics think that the marks were given randomly and they call the whole mechanism ‘shoddy’. However, the NTA cited a formula based on a 2018 Supreme Court ruling concerning the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), which is conducted online. This is considered unsuitable by many critics since NEET is an offline exam, and the 2018 ruling explicitly excludes admissions for medical and engineering programs. Recently NTA has scrapped the grace marks and 1563 students are given option to sit for a re-examine on June 23. However, students want scrapping of the NEET score altogether. Is NTA responsible for what the political oppositions are calling a deliberate scam? Or is it a case of mere inefficiency?
Outlook spoke to students, expert, doctor, and parents to understand the fallout of this NEET controversy.
In Video: Abhik Bhattacharya & Rahat Sharma
Videographers: Divya Tiwari & Suresh K Pandey
Script: Rani Jana
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Though primarily it was not revealed, later NTA confirmed awarding grace marks to several students to compensate for the alleged lost time at the exam centre. Several critics think that the marks were given randomly and they call the whole mechanism ‘shoddy’. However, the NTA cited a formula based on a 2018 Supreme Court ruling concerning the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), which is conducted online. This is considered unsuitable by many critics since NEET is an offline exam, and the 2018 ruling explicitly excludes admissions for medical and engineering programs. Recently NTA has scrapped the grace marks and 1563 students are given option to sit for a re-examine on June 23. However, students want scrapping of the NEET score altogether. Is NTA responsible for what the political oppositions are calling a deliberate scam? Or is it a case of mere inefficiency?
Outlook spoke to students, expert, doctor, and parents to understand the fallout of this NEET controversy.
In Video: Abhik Bhattacharya & Rahat Sharma
Videographers: Divya Tiwari & Suresh K Pandey
Script: Rani Jana
Follow us:
Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlookindia/
X: https://twitter.com/Outlookindia
Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaNrF3v0AgWLA6OnJH0R
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutlookMagazine
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/outlookindia
#NEET #Doctors #NEETScam #Students #NTA
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NewsTranscript
00:00Exam Mafia in India is a reality.
00:05Every exam in India is conducted under the shadow of the fear that something will go
00:12wrong, someone will leak the paper and it is big business.
00:16On May 5th, over 24 lakh students took the NEET exam at 4,750 centres in 571 cities,
00:26including 14 international locations, but June 4 results caused an uproar, over 1,500
00:33students received grace marks, 67 scored perfect 720s and there were allegations of a leaked
00:39question paper.
00:40We spoke to students, an expert, a doctor and a parent to understand the fallout of
00:46this NEET exam controversy.
00:48And it is an absolute tragedy, in my mind these competitive exams are for a large part
00:53of India, passport to social mobility.
00:58So if someone is in Bangkoda, we have had a topper from Bangkoda in West Bengal or someone
01:03is from a place like Hinguli or Amravati, the only way you will get out of the place
01:08in which you were born in and go to a better place are these competitive exams, if those
01:12people are going to give up, those people when they crack an exam like NEET also become
01:18local inspiration.
01:19I will give you my example, I come from a lower middle class family in Jaipur, I got
01:23selected in IIT Delhi in 1997, everyone who came after me tried to get into IIT and lot
01:29of them got into IIT in our direct family and extended family.
01:34That thing is getting hurt with all this that is going on right now and it has been very
01:38very poorly addressed by the education ministry in India till now.
01:42Because of the paper leak, our entire centres used to get cancelled, NEETs were not even
01:47held again.
01:48So, it used to happen at that time also, because of the paper leak system and all, there was
01:55a lot of career in that also, but at that time there was no social media, now social media
02:00is there, but it was not there.
02:02So, it was not there.
02:03So, it was not there.
02:04So, it was not there.
02:05So, it was not there.
02:06So, it was not there.
02:07So, it was not there.
02:08So, it was not there.
02:09So, it was not there.
02:10So, it was not there.
02:11So, it was not there.
02:12So, it was not there.
02:13So, it was not there.
02:14So, it was not there.
02:15So, it was not there.
02:17So, now the social media is the touchstone of our society to this day.
02:21So, at that time, there were no social media, there were no whatsapps, and we didn't have
02:25so many resources that we were able to record all sorts of corruption somewhere.
02:29So, I think today's children are getting a lot of benefit because the rioting happened.
02:32During our time, we didn't get the benefit because what happened has happened.
02:36The NTA admitted a technical glitch after the Supreme Court's intervention reversing
02:41grace marks for over 1500 students and offering retests.
02:46In 2018, the cut-off was 540 marks, NTA started conducting exams in 2019, the cut-off shot
02:53up to 583 and it has been going up every year steadily.
02:58This year it went up from 610 to 655.
03:01My marks are 670 and my rank is 61K, which was around 22-23 lakhs, sorry thousands.
03:12My coaching started last year in May, just after the need of 23.
03:17In the need of 23, I scored 450 approx and I was expecting that this mark will go up
03:25to 600K plus because it was the same cut-off last year.
03:28This was my second attempt after the first drop.
03:31This time my score is 641.
03:33Last year, my rank was between 6000-7000.
03:39So, expecting this year's cut-off, I was expecting 9000-10,000, maximum 11,000.
03:45A lot of students were assured, at least in their mind, that based on past year trends,
03:50I am going to get a government college.
03:53They are not going to get it and there is an extreme angst about this fact.
03:57Now, this angst is necessarily not on the quality of paper and the paper was very easy
04:03and because of which the cut-off has shot up.
04:07It is because people believe that something wrong has happened.
04:11Something has happened with respect to probably paper leaks.
04:15There have been arrests that have been made in Patna.
04:19It has been established that people had paper.
04:21When they were arrested, they tried to burn it.
04:23All of that is documented.
04:26In your time, it's been long back, when you started your journey and you cracked Janket's exam.
04:33How was it then and what is different that you are seeing now?
04:36You see, the time I was preparing for medical, there were different bodies, like different
04:44states used to conduct their own exams.
04:47Then there were all India-based competitive exam, especially for medical, CVC used to conduct.
04:54And besides that, central universities used to conduct like BHU, IMS, BHU, All National
04:58Governmental Sciences, even AMU.
05:00So there were many exams.
05:01We had to appear for 3-4 exams to crack into maybe 1, 2 or 3.
05:07So we had to appear into different exams.
05:09Now it has become a central exam sort of thing.
05:12So there is one exam and students do appear into that.
05:17And one exam has its merits, its demerits as well.
05:22If one exam, you, due to some reason, emotional reason, due to whatever, center had some issue,
05:29you know, a question came late, there was some wrong distribution of the paper in the
05:34language, say Hindi-English.
05:36So if one examination goes wrong, your career is ruined.
05:41In medical profession, there is no any place for, you know, single year lapse.
05:46People do take chances because, you know, we do have a scarcity in our career opportunities.
05:53So we are, you know, our kids, they look for drops, they look for second year preparation.
05:59But it itself is such a huge journey that you keep on adding, you know, another year
06:04to that journey whenever there is some fallacy.
06:09So I like to say that even single examination for, you know, every institution, that also
06:15has some problem, which has come up this time.
06:18I get a call from my cousin and they said that the result has come, check it.
06:23When I checked the result, my rank was around 54,000.
06:28And I was, I never expected that I could have such a high rank.
06:33I thought maximum to maximum that if I get the last rank, I will get 21, 22, 23,000.
06:41But it was 54,000, which was not expected for me at all.
06:45So I lost my government seat.
06:48And after that, I can't afford any private seat.
06:52So I am thinking of taking a drop again.
06:55But I keep thinking in my mind that if it happens again like this year, then my one year will be wasted.
07:05NTA gave a notification, issued a notification in December that NCRT books,
07:10which NCRT books are to be followed.
07:12And there were some confusions, if you can tell us about that.
07:14So what has happened is, understand this problem, NTA is a national exam, right?
07:19But the book from which the generally the exam has come is NCRT book.
07:25Now, NCRT book is not universally followed across all the boards in India, right?
07:31So what happens is NTA doesn't mention in its information bulletin that the exam is
07:35going to be from NCRT book, because as soon as they do it, you know how much fuss every
07:39time happens around NEET and Tamil Nadu.
07:42They will say, we have students who are studying in Tamil board, you are trying to impose your
07:48one nation, whatever world on us, right?
07:51So as a result, what happens is, before they will announce the syllabus, there is consultation
07:59which goes on across all the boards, right?
08:03And then they come up with, okay, this is going to be the syllabus.
08:05So the amazing thing that happened was, they reduce certain chapters.
08:10So initially there were 96 chapters, now it is 79 in the new book.
08:14So 17 chapters were done away with, right?
08:17But then when the consultation happened, they added some chapters which were not even there
08:22in the new book, but some of the boards insisted that this is critical in our mind to academic
08:28excellence of the students, you can't remove them.
08:30So for example, P block elements were added, for example cockroach was added, for example
08:35tissues were added.
08:36So old book 96 chapters, new book 79 chapters, then you add more and they took a lot of time.
08:45It's an absolute tragedy if a preparation is for two years and if you are going to tell
08:50the new syllabus four months before the exam, you wasted precious time of a student.
09:06If you are very good, you go into a government college, fees is going to be limited.
09:34If your parents can afford, you go to a good private college.
09:39If you are neither, you are not very good and you can't afford, then you go to a Ukraine,
09:43Russia and Kyrgyzstan.
09:45So that is a via media and then you try and come back by giving FMGA exam or hopefully
09:49whenever next exam is going to come.
09:52This is the basic reason.
09:54Now on top of it what happens is, in a government college, because you are associated with a
09:59government hospital where you get free treatment, the patient inflow is very very high, which
10:05means even if you are very junior, when you are doing MVVS, you literally know very very
10:11limited things in terms of application.
10:14Would you be able to give injection to someone?
10:17It's anyone's guess.
10:18People are learning, right?
10:19But because the rush is so much, you get to touch the patient, you get to practice stuff.
10:24In private medical colleges, by the nature of it, because they are expensive, they don't
10:28get to do it.
10:29We have got to know that it was Supreme Court's verdict in 2018 regarding CLAT, that there
10:35has to be some grace marks given whenever the time is lost.
10:39But do you think for a noble profession, medical, where the merit is everything, then to give
10:45this grace mark certainly undermine the nobility of the profession?
10:50It does, but you know what, in my mind, it still doesn't explain the issue of the cut-off
10:56jump from 610 to 635, because we are talking about only 1563 students, right?
11:03This whole grace mark thing was done in a very very shoddy manner.
11:07You are right, they applied the conclusion of CLAT into NEET, CLAT is a very very homogenous
11:13paper, NEET has distinct physics, chemistry and biology, generally students are very comfortable
11:18with biology, they are very uncomfortable with physics.
11:22If you go by the fact that okay, I reached till a point of time, which means he would
11:26have largely done biology, chemistry and some physics, when you apply that rule, the
11:30numbers are going to be significantly higher because you tend to leave the most difficult
11:34part for the end and then you miss that part.
11:38So the grace mark does not take care of that aspect.
11:42But people are angry not because of that, people are angry because this was not mentioned
11:48in the information bulletin that this would be a mechanism for grace marks, in case students
11:53are not given the requisite 200 minutes, which is available for every aspirant.
11:58And then when students found out that something like this has happened, it was first reported
12:04by Times of India correspondent and then NTA came out and said, yes guys, by the way we
12:09did this.
12:10That's not done, for an exam like this, which in general is in very very strong spotlight,
12:18you don't do this and they have done it and now they're trying to say, oh, you know what,
12:23we are going to probably look at our own committee's recommendation by another committee.
12:29But I do not believe that 1563 students changes the narrative of the agitation.
12:36Paramedics has been included this time in this NEET examination.
12:41Do you think it is somewhere rather right or how do you read it?
12:45You see, if you talk of logistic issues, so one examination is good, because if any
12:55examination being done at the level of 12, say PCB or maybe PCM for engineering purposes,
13:02so logistic wise that is okay.
13:04You need someone to qualify some examination and based on that merit, you do have a ranking
13:09system, you make a merit list and accordingly you restitute.
13:13So it is okay, but the candidates who are appearing, they feel a pressure that 24.5
13:22lakhs have appeared in the exam.
13:24So the students have increased.
13:27So that gives sort of insecurity or some pressure into their mind.
13:32Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the error occurred in only 6 centres out of
13:384500, but in a high-stakes exam, every mark counts.
13:43Notably, 6 top scorers were from the same centre in Haryana.