Over 22 lakh students across the country took the National Entrance Eligibility Test (NEET) on May 3. Just over a week later, the entire test was cancelled following reports of paper leak in Rajasthan.
It is evident that not all 22.8 lakh students must have gotten access to the leaked questions. Rather, it must be a select few, may be in hundreds or a few thousands who may have managed to get the leaked questions. Still all 22.8 lakh students have been punished to sit for re-examination for no fault of theirs.
Who will account for the trauma and harassment each one of these students will face. They will have to prepare afresh and go through the rigmarole once again. It is highly unlikely that the powers that be, which control the education system in the country, will have any idea as to what it means to take an examination like the NEET.
In the highly competitive times, students start preparations for this exam right from the day they take their matriculation/ class 10 exams. It is a long and a harrowing schedule, with some students studying 16 hours non-stop preparing for the exam that decides their future. They miss everything else in life during these years to study and prepare for the exams. Reappearing in an exam, no matter how competent and efficient a student may be, is a challenging job. Revising and refreshing everything within a short period of time is a herculean task.
And here is the National Testing Authority (NAT), which has proved time and again that it is not competent enough to conduct the exam with the flawless efficiency it needs to be conducted with. The NEET picks up the best minds from across the country to be trained as doctors, who are acknowledged and well respected not only in India but abroad, particularly in countries like the United States and Great Britain. But unfortunately, reports of papers getting leaked leads to questioning the credibility of the entire examination process and system.
It is not for the first time that the NEET paper has been “leaked”. There were reports of paper leak in 2024 as well. Had the authorities taken fool proof measures back then, the embarrassment to the organisers and harassment to over two million students would not have taken place. In fact, earlier there were reports of the JEE Main questions having been leaked in 2021. This only reflects the casual attitude with which crucial exams are handled by the National Testing Agency. Had strict punitive action been taken in the past, may be “leaking of questions” would not have been repeated.
Also read: 600 of 720 NEET 2026 questions matched pre-exam material
Given the enormity of the process, with 22.8 lakh students taking the exam, it involves huge paraphernalia and people to conduct these. At the same time, it is not so easy to spot the actual culprit in the era of modern technology. Moreover, there is a view that it is not necessary that someone may have physically leaked the questions. There are hackers who hack the systems. Like in an earlier JEE Main leak case, it was alleged that some Russian hackers had hacked the system and leaked some questions.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has started a probe into the paper leak. It has made several arrests also. It is a long drawn legal process. By the time the CBI reaches any conclusion, fresh exams will be over and possibly the students may have covered most part of their courses. By that time most people would forget about it. Even the students who are made to reappear in the exams would have moved on. Over a period of time, the case loses intensity but culprits rarely get punished. The show goes on.
The issue is how to address and fix the problem. If the paper gets leaked once, there is no guarantee that it may not get leaked again. Also, there is no guarantee that the paper leak may get noticed and reported. It has happened for the second time now. There will be speculations that the paper may be getting leaked every year and it is not getting noticed and reported. Even in the current case the paper leak was found just by chance.
This has again raised the question whether admissions to the MBBS courses should be done through the NEET only? Why not explore other options? Why not go back to the earlier practice when the states were holding their own competitive entrance tests for such courses.
The Tamil Nadu government under the previous DMK regime had made a strong case for disbanding the NEET and allowing the states to conduct their own tests. Former Keralam chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also favoured the same view.
The Government of India must seriously consider exploring other options than the NEET, particularly when paper leaks have been reported quite frequently. Also, there is no point in forcing the students of Kashmir in north India or Manipur in eastern India to appear for exams again, just because the paper was leaked in the western state of Rajasthan. This is not just unfair; it is brutally cruel to the students. Not only must this not be allowed to happen again, those responsible must be identified and given exemplary punishment in a fast court trial.
Follow us
