Tighter security is no reform. NTA needs overhaul. What has been done to address its shortcomings?
Op NEET-UG retest was, for all purposes, successfully executed. The bandobast was epic. CRPF, CISF, Air Force, state and local police forces, AI-based monitoring, 1.4L CCTVs, 51,000+ signal jammers, 2L personnel, multi-agency surveillance (offline & cyber), GPS-enabled fleet, lockdown facilities, a messaging app ban. A ‘whole-of-govt’ approach to conduct a three-hour exam for medical aspirants. Nearly 23L NEET-UG candidates, mostly 17 to 20 years old, were frisked and exposed to intensive biometric scrutiny. Imagine the afternoon queues in high noon at these temperatures. It will be instructive to know the per capita cost of this gargantuan crisis-level security exercise. What this one-day retest cost, in simple money terms, is the tangible cost of NTA’s multiple failures, NEET the largest. Three points.
* There is no measure of the mental agony of the retest. Forced to sit the exam all over again imposed an immense emotional and psychological burden on candidates and families, who have stretched themselves, and their finances, taken loans, sold gold, put plans on hold, for their ward to sit this one test. Twelve students took their own lives in the 37-day period since NEET was cancelled. There is no measure for such tragedy. There is no grievance mechanism, even less accountability. As noted earlier, shuffling bureaucrats is no answer.
* Tighter security also does not address the real problems with the NEET design itself – the exam that decides who will be India’s future doctors. NEET is poorly designed and needs overhaul – centralisation and a single yearly attempt jeopardise a full batch when the system glitches, or there is fraud. NEET tests more coaching preparedness than merit; it has simply strengthened the coaching industry. It disadvantages state board students, as school-leaving marks are redundant in deciding a NEET rank, and central boards are more aligned to NEET’s syllabus. It has fully centralised the admission process, thereby ignoring state-level specific requirements for doctors.
* As for NTA, how many exams can realistically be secured through extraordinary measures and vigilance? There has been a real cost in managing the retest within 38 days. Is this sustainable? Certainly not.
The real question, therefore, is whether any meaningful progress has been made in addressing the structural flaws that plague NTA. What measures have been taken to address the underlying pattern that leads to institutional failure? It all remains unresolved – NTA’s capacity, accountability, transparency, governance. That is the failure that no amount of security can cover.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ1QxtCFBJn/
http://www.nta.ac.in/Download/Notice/Notice_20260619163804.PDF
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
