‘Students Who Buy Leaked Papers Must Be Barred From Future Exams’
Krishna Chauhan, a 2026 NEET aspirant, wonders why NTA is hell bent on written NEET exam when digitisation wave is sweeping the nation! His views:
First of all a genuine concern: why did the National Testing Aagency not take a lesson from previous NEET paper leaks (such as in 2024) and kept carrying on with the OMR and black & white question paper of the examinations? Why could they not take a leaf out of the JEE examinations which are conducted on the Computer Based Test (CBT) model with zero pilferage and manipulation?
I remember the fuss created in 2024 when a similar paper leak occurred and an arrogant NTA, instead of cancelling the exams, took the case to Supreme Court and came out `clear’ after re-conducting the examination of only 120 students. How was the NTA so sure that the leaked paper only reached 120 students in an age where illegal and anti-national information and events spread like wildfire just at the click of a button?
Is it not a mockery of a system where the government is promoting everything online – from payments to papers and the NTA is hell bound in conducting only NEET exams in an orthodox way? The same agency conducts the JEE exams in the most modern way and till date there have been no reports of a paper leak.
Switch Over To Digital World
Even less pilferage-prone exams like the all India university exams like CUET are conducted in the CBT mode with zero reports of pilferage. Although the NTA was honest enough to accept the truth this time and re-schedule the exams afresh, it will still be conducted in the orthodox mode with a promise to switch to the modern CBT pattern from next year.
The NTA has also tried to compensate for its fault by reimbursing the examination fees but what about the hours we lost and the mental agony faced by us and our parents. The education minister, for the first time, owned up and claimed responsibility but he has still not shared his and his department’s future plans to fill the loopholes that have been persistently assisting such crimes in many examinations.
Unlike the previous leak, this time two subject teachers, along with habitual offenders like coaching centers and habitual offenders, have also been arrested for their involvement. It was very shocking that the arrested teachers, besides enjoying the status of subject experts in the NTA, were also running private coaching centers!
Dubious Experts
How can the NTA be so sure about the loyalty of `experts’? Are there any guidelines and framework for appointment of experts in the NTA panel or they are just being appointed without any background check and most importantly, their engagements post appointment in the NTA?
Lastly and most importantly, rescheduling of the examination is welcomed but what about the hours and days we lost in preparing for the examinations? It was my first attempt and the paper was by and large easy and I expected to get a government college.
But now a tougher paper is quite evident and besides burning more hours, the rescheduling will also affect the academic calendar making the medical studies more tedious and tense. Besides us the students, the dreams of most of the parents also lie shattered and the coaching centers will definitely come up with some month long crash courses with obvious promises of `sure selections’ luring many students to join and indirectly burning a hole in the pockets of the parents.
As told to Rajat Rai
