‘Present Imperfect, Future Tense for Us NEET Aspirants’
Prashant Awasthi, A NEET aspirant who scored 610 marks this year, sees little hope for his future with the prestigious test marred by a series of controversies. His views:
Whatever mess the entire NEET process went through and whatever has been going on this year clearly reflects one thing: that this scam had been carried out for long and only got exposed this year. The entire process (and the cheat code) was bound to collapse as it had loopholes from day one.
For example, if the date of the submission of examination forms is to be extended, it is done on the last date itself as a general practice. However, this year, the NTA (national testing agency) waited a full 10 days and opened the windows for two days where an astonishing 24,000-plus students submitted the form.
Now coming to the re-examination of 1,563 students who were given grace marks and after the court’s order, they were asked to appear again. The NTA said that grace marks were given to students of six exam centres but for re-examinations, admit cards were issued to students of other centres (of other states also), beyond those six centres. The list of fraudulent practices by NTA is endless and so are our woes; ironically, we have been advised (by the NTA) to have patience.
Due to the entire mess that is going on, people are doubting even the efficient and the honest successful candidates. I am also on target as last year, I scored 590 marks and this year 610. But looking at the present scenario, I am having second thoughts about my future.
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What is most surprising is that the NTA is itself in a dilemma – on one hand it is accepting the pilferage and on the other hand it is preparing for the counseling of students on July 6th (after the instructions of the Supreme Court). How can the NTA be so sure that everyone (including the students found guilty) has been caught and all those who have been given the green signal (for counseling) are honest?
There is no system or technique that can put a 100 per cent check on any kind of paper leakage and nab all those involved in it. If things have got messed up to such an extent, what is stopping the NTA to cancel the examination and conduct it afresh? And if, according to the NTA, the agency’s process was so neat and clear, why did it cancel the NEET PG examination in a hurry?
If this is not done, it will be a huge blow to the morale of the honest and deserving aspirants. A majority of the aspirants are from an average or rural background and their support system (family) cannot afford the expenses of coaching, boarding and lodging (as majority of coaching institutions are in big cities and faraway places) year after year. They take immense pain and `courage’ to arrange for fulfilling the dreams of not only the aspirant but the family, relatives, locality, city and the society at large. The government and the agencies should work hard and devise some method to make at least the employment system leak proof and corruption free.
As told to Rajat Rai
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