After reports of paper leaks and controversy around the grace marks given to certain students in the NEET-UG (National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate) exam, the coaching industry is asking for re-examination for all students. “We are asking National Testing Agency (NTA) to cancel the exams and conduct it again. It’s unfair for the students because there have been reports of paper leaks from Bihar and Gujarat,” said founder of a coaching institute with a large offline presence, on condition of anonymity.
The outcry to conduct fresh exams comes close on the heels of NTA planning to scrap the grace marks given to 1,563 students who appeared for exams in Haryana. The NTA has now announced re-test for these students – those who did not get the stipulated 3 hours and 20 minutes to complete the examination – following the petition filed in the apex court over a large number of students (67) sharing the top rank.
Experts said that the biggest contention of coaching institutes is that there are 61 students who have scored 720 marks out of 720 in the exams. “This has never happened before. Usually, the number of students scoring perfect marks is below 5. For coaching institute, the biggest pull factor for getting fresh students is to advertise their toppers. But they have refrained from doing so this year,” said Manish Jangra, founder of Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA).
Take the case of Physics Wallah (PW), a leading online edtech platform. It had some 4 students scoring 720 marks but the platform categorically denied doing any publicity around these toppers. In 2024, over 2.5 million students applied for the NEET-UG exam, which was 0.42 million higher than the previous year. Out of this, about 1 million students took coaching. For the record, NEET offers a total of 1,08,940 seats in over 700 medical colleges in addition to 27,868 BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) seats, 52,720 AYUSH seats, and 603 BVSc and AH seats (Bachelor of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry).
On Monday, the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan reportedly assured of the ‘harshest punishment’ for those found guilty in the NEET-UG 2024 scam.
Over the past two weeks, leading coaching institutes have been raising concerns around the NEET. For instance, in a PIL (public interest litigation) filed in his person capacity, PW founder and CEO Alakh Pandey said that after seeing the concerns of the number of students, he raised the queries on various forums so that appropriate clarifications maybe issued by NTA. “Subsequently, NTA issued clarification on June 2024. With due respect, it is stated that while the press releases attempts to address the queries, however, in reality it fails to do so,” the PIL said.
On June 7, Pandey also issued a notice seeking clarification from NTA. But he has neither received any reply to the notice nor NTA issued any clarification which forced him to file the writ petition.
In a letter to NTA on June 9, the MD and CEO of Aakash Educational Services Deepak Mehrotra had asked the agency to address the reported issues with transparent, comprehensive, and scientifically sound responses. “We urge the NTA to also consider the interests of every student during the resolution process. Many aspirants have dedicated years of their lives, demonstrating remarkable grit, determination, and passion in their preparation for this examination. It is vital that their hard work and aspirations are safeguarded in a just and equitable manner,” the letter said.
