New Delhi:Â Â Amid an ongoing row over the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) and the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET), Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan asserted to further strengthen the National Testing Agency by “reconsidering important things.”
The Education Minister also promised to take action against those accountable for the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the examinations. Pradhan said, “In a democracy, everyone has their views. It is our job to listen to everyone. Our responsibility is to run a process-driven government, it is our responsibility to speak the truth and accept truth. Few students have doubts about NTA (National Testing Agency) and we will have to accept this.”
“The government has decided to form a committee and experts will be part of that committee. All the important things will be reconsidered and the NTA will be strengthened further. Those who are responsible for it (discrepancies) will be held accountable,” he said.
The Education Minister earlier announced the formation of a high-level committee to probe into the issues pertaining to the functioning of NTA. “We are committed to holding zero-error exams, and a high-level committee is being formed to improve NTA functioning,” Pradhan said at a briefing earlier on Thursday. Pradhan, while speaking to ANI on the issues, said that the solution was found to the “main issue” regarding grace marks in the NEET-UG exam.
“Regarding NEET, the first discrepancy that came to light was regarding the grace mark, due to some procedural mismanagement. A fear spread, a few students got agitated and people went to court. Later, NTA (National Testing Agency) kept a new petition before the court so that a reexamination of those students who got grace marks could be conducted. So a solution was found to the main issue related to NEET,” he said.
“Then, a few issues from Patna came to light, and due to timely intervention, all, those who were behind it were caught, further probe is underway. Bihar government officials and central government officials are working together to take it to a logical end,” said Pradhan.
” I want to assure the students, this is your government. Have faith, the interest of students is key to us. Yesterday evening, IC4 gave input on UGC-NET, saying that there is a possibility that the exam was compromised. We looked into it and we also felt that the exam was compromised. We cancelled the exam and initiated a CBI inquiry,” he said.
Amid the massive uproar, the Education Ministry cancelled the UGC-NET exam held on June 18, saying its integrity may have been compromised and that it wouldn’t hesitate to take action against anyone.
The NEET-UG 2024 exam was conducted on May 5 and the results were declared on June 4, ahead of its scheduled announcement date of June 14. Protests were held, alleging irregularities and paper leaks, as the results showed that as many as 67 students had topped the exam with a perfect score of 720.
