Imperfection due to lack of conduct in the NEET undergraduate exam of 2024, referring to the investigation of Bihar in paper leak the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan conceded there have been “some errors limited to specific regions”, and stated of setting up a high-level panel within the National Testing Agency (NTA) to check and review the structure and functioning.
Attending a press conference among students, Pradhan took moral responsibility for the dropping of trust. His verdict on the NEET-UG controversy changed on Thursday, as last week he had said there is no proof of a paper leak. “There is no corruption,” he said after taking the charge of education minister in the NDA government.
On the composition of members of the high-level committee, Pradhan did not reveal the names but said that the panel will consist of people from all backgrounds (academics, technocrats, psychologists) and will be announced soon.
According to the details obtained from Bihar Police, the view of the government is that the non-uniformity that happened was restricted to some areas. One of the options that is taken into consideration is to have a retest of aspirants who are from the affected test centers.
Taking responsibility for the “errors”, Pradhan stated, “I take moral responsibility for this. The future of the country will have to be secured, quality and transparency will have to be maintained, the hard work of lakhs of poor students will have to be respected.” When asked further about NEET cancellation or re-exam, he said that the future of many candidates should not be stalled due to “few isolated incidents”.
The Union Government is waiting for some more information from the Bihar police, after that, it will decide on the retest or cancellation of NEET-UG 2024.
Pradhan stated, the decision for the NEET-UG 2024 exam will not affect the retest scheduled for 1563 candidates on June 23, 2024, who were given grace marks initially due to time loss caused by errors made by exam staff and invigilators.