NEET Result and Associated Controversy

Source-This post on NEET Result and Associated Controversy has been created based on the article “Why is there a controversy around NEET this year” published in “The Indian Express” on 8 June 2024.

UPSC Syllabus-GS Paper-2– Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context– The article discusses the controversies surrounding the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2024 results, which were announced recently. The examination is held for admission to medical, dental, and AYUSH courses in government and private colleges across India.

Around 2.4 million candidates appeared for the NEET UG 2024 examination held on May 5 in 571 cities, 14 of which were outside India. There are 1,08,940 MBBS seats available across over 700 medical colleges in the country.

What is the controversy about the NEET result?

1) The results got attention because a lot of candidates, 67 to be exact, got a perfect score of 720/720. Some candidates also scored 718 or 719 which seems unreasonable to many.

2) At least two petitions were filed in High Courts against the results, and a petition was filed in the Supreme Court requesting a re-examination due to alleged question paper leaks.

Read more- Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill 2024

What are the arguments given by NTA to justify its position?

1) Grace Marks for Textbook Error -44 of the 67 toppers got a basic physics question wrong but were still awarded “grace marks” due to a mistake in an older version of the NCERT Class 12 textbook. The NTA defended its decision, stating that it strongly recommends aspirants to study from NCERT textbooks for NEET preparation.

2) Possibility of scoring 718 and 719 marks-

A) The next highest score after 720 should have been 716.Itexplained that 1,563 candidates, including six toppers, were awarded “compensatory marks” for loss of examination time due to issues at certain centers in Bahadurgarh (Haryana), Delhi, and Chhattisgarh.

B) The Grievance Redressal Committees, set up by the Supreme Court, looked into complaints and awarded affected candidates marks based on how efficiently they answered and the time they lost.

3) Allegations of Paper Leak -Allegations of question paper leaks were made in Patna, but the Bihar Police’s Special Investigation Team found insufficient evidence to confirm a leak.

4) Wrong Paper Distribution-It A denied any paper leak but confirmed that some Hindi-medium students in Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan) were mistakenly given English-medium question papers.

5) Early Declaration of Results– The NTA explained that they declared the results early because they followed all necessary checks and procedures before announcing them.

6) High Cutoffs-

A) The NTA said the high cutoffs were because candidates performed exceptionally well, and the exam was more competitive this year.

B) A record number of 23.81 lakh students signed up for NEET UG 2024, compared to 20.87 lakh in 2023. This increase in registrations may have played a part in the higher cutoff.

Question for practice

What is the controversy about the NEET result? What are the arguments given by NTA to justify its position?