The papers for the common entrance exam for medical school were allegedly leaked. The number of top ranked students looks suspicious—as are some of the total marks received. The matter is so serious that it may have cost the BJP votes in Uttar Pradesh—and is now in front of the Supreme Court. We explain what’s up with NEET—and why it has long been a lightning rod for controversy.
Remind me about NEET…
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test is a common entrance exam for admission into all medical and dental colleges across India. Students are placed in different institutions based on their rankings. First proposed in 2010, it has had a troubled history:
- In 2013, the Medical Council of India introduced NEET.
- It aimed to replace the All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT) and state level entrance tests with a single national entrance exam—administered by the National Testing Agency.
- But a number of state petitions challenged the move—and the Supreme Court held that NEET deprived State-run institutions of their right to admit students according to their own criteria—and declared it unconstitutional.
- In 2016, the Supreme Court did a big U-turn and recalled its previous judgement. And NEET staged a comeback
- In 2020, the government also abolished the separate entrance exams for AIIMS and JIPMER.
Why NEET matters: This year, nearly 2.4 million students took the entrance exam across 571 cities. They are competing for a paltry 108,940 seats in 700 medical colleges across the country. FYI: women outnumber the men—1.36 million to 1.01 million.
NEET is the gatekeeper for a career in medicine—not just in India but also in overseas institutions—which give great weight to NEET scores. And it’s more than just medicine. Along with the JEE exam for engineering, NEET is the gateway to financial security for millions of less affluent Indians:
“Only 6% of India’s working population is employed in the organised sector. Due to the population increase in the first decade of this century, currently 24 million jobseekers every year are ready to work, while only half a million will get organised sector jobs that promise some economic security,” [economist Arun Kumar] said. Since India’s unorganised sector is characterised by low income and extreme job insecurity, “it puts extreme pressure on students to do well in examinations in order to enter the organised sector.”
The problem with NEET: Here’s a quick summary of the reasons why NEET has many critics:
- NEET is based on the CBSE curriculum—and puts kids who study in state board schools at a huge disadvantage.
- While NEET is conducted in 11 languages, the tests are riddled with translation errors. The 2018 exam in Tamil had typos in 49 questions—which can determine whether a student passes or fails.
- The move to a single hyper-competitive entrance exam has made coaching institutes for NEET and JEE (engineering entrance exam) extremely powerful—and punished kids who can’t afford their fees.
- The percentage of students gaining medical college admission from repeat attempts at NEET rose from 12.47% in 2016-17 to 71.42% in 2020-21. Taking multiple shots at the exam requires ample resources.
- As a result, the number of kids from rural areas in medical colleges has fallen sharply since the introduction of the common exam.
- The percentage of first-generation learners—those with household incomes below Rs 250,000—has decreased as well.
Most other states have surrendered to the NEET requirement, but Tamil Nadu has remained defiant. Its legislature passed a bill banning the exam in 2022—but it is still in limbo—waiting for the President’s assent. (We did a detailed Big Story on the battle between the union government and Tamil Nadu.)
Is this why everyone is so angry right now?
Nope. No one is questioning the rationale for NEET. The students and parents are furious because the results suggest widespread corruption. And here’s why:
One: This year, 67 students were tied for the #1 rank—who got the perfect score of 720. To give you a sense of how outlandish this is: the number of top-ranked students in 2023 was two—one in 2022 and an all-time high of three in 2021.
It gets worse: Of these, six took the exam at the same centre in Haryana.
Key point to note: Sixty seven students now have a #1 rank but AIIMS New Delhi—which is considered the best medical college in the country—has only 48 non-reserved seats.
Two: The explanation offered by the National Testing Agency—which administers the test—made the discrepancy seem even more fishy. The NTA claims that the artificially high number is a result of a factual error in an old government-approved textbook. As a result, a number of students picked the wrong option on a multiple choice question in Chemistry. The NTA therefore awarded grace marks to those who made this mistake. These included 44 of the 67 top-ranked students—whose score went from 715 to the perfect 720 because of the grace marks.
Also this: The NTA’s other figleaf—the paper was much easier this year.
Three: A number of students received inexplicable scores such as 719 or 718. This is impossible since the marking scheme for the multiple choice papers is as follows:
- All correct answers receive four marks.
- This remains true even if more than one option is correct.
- One mark is deducted for incorrect answers.
- Unanswered questions get zero.
So a student who answered one question incorrectly—or did not attempt it all—should get 716 or 715 marks—not 718 or 719.
The NTA’s explanation: is shifty, as usual. It claims students at some examination centres were given grace marks because they got less time to complete the paper. There were 1,563 such students—of whom two ended up with totals of 718 and 719. But as this parent below points out, on the day of the exam, NTA reported delays only at one centre. That number jumped to six only after the odd scores became public.
Four: The most egregious problem is the vast disparity between something called OMR and the final score of the same student. Right before the results are announced, the NTA returns each student their filled answer sheet—called the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheet—plus the answer key. This allows them to calculate their own score. Then it releases the final scorecards.
There are outrageous gaps between the two. For example, one student’s OMR sheet reflected a score of 384—but her final scorecard shows 308—a difference of 80 marks. The discrepancy can work in favour of the student, as well—as this PhysicsWallah clip shows:
Five: Adding to fuel to fire: A Bihar police investigation that resulted in the arrest of 13 people for selling NEET papers—to around 35 students. But the investigators now say there is no concrete evidence that the exam papers were leaked. FYI: The alleged going price for the papers: Rs 30 to 40 lakh.
The NTA response: The agency continues to insist that papers were never leaked to anyone.
Ok, so what happens now?
Students and their parents want a do-over—and have written a letter to NTA and the government demanding a do-over. PhysicsWallah has filed a Supreme Court petition challenging the award of grace marks—and the criteria applied. It will be taken up after the Court comes back from vacation in July—along with a separate plea for a fresh exam. The NTA has now appointed a committee to look into the complaints. But no one has stepped in to suspend medical colleges admissions as of now.
The bottomline: Education cannot be the gateway to opportunity when the gatekeepers are either deeply corrupt and/or incompetent.
Reading list
Indian Express has a good overview of what went wrong with NEET this year. Also in the Express: The police investigation into the alleged paper leak in Bihar. India Today looks at the exam’s marking scheme and why scores like 718 and 719 are impossible. The Hindu explains the debacle with the OMR sheets. Frontline Magazine has an excellent piece on the incredible amount of pressure that the Indian education system exerts on students. Our older Big Story has lots more on why Tamil Nadu has been consistently opposed to NEET.
