New Delhi: The Union ministry of education has constituted a four-member panel to revisit the results of over 1,500 students who were given grace marks as compensation for loss of time during the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET-UG) for admissions to undergraduate medical courses, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced on Saturday.
The NEET 2024 results, announced on June 4, triggered a massive uproar, with several aspirants and parents demanding a probe and sought a “re-exam”, alleging that the paper was leaked at certain centres where students got high scores.
There has been outrage over the pre-medical entrance examination amid outrage over the “inflation of marks” of 1,563 students who were compensated for the loss of time. Students from at least six centres in states, including Meghalaya, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Surat and Chandigarh, had complained about the loss of time during exams. According to NTA officials, students at these centres could not get the full 3 hours and 20 minutes to complete the exam due to administrative reasons, including the distribution of the wrong question paper, torn OMR sheets, or delay in the distribution of OMR sheets, among others.
Addressing the media on Saturday, NTA Director General (DG) Subodh Kumar Singh said that a four-member panel, headed by a former Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) chairperson, has been constituted to re-examine the results of these over 1,500 students.
“The committee will look into the issue of compensatory marks given to these 1,563 students. It will submit its recommendations within a week, and on the basis of the results of these candidates, might be revised. Everything will be done in a time-bound manner so that the process of counselling and admission will not get affected,” he said.
Singh assured that the awarding of grace marks has not impacted the qualifying criteria of the exam, and the review of the results of the affected candidates will not impact the admission process.
When asked about the formula used to provide grace marks to students, the NTA chief said that it was devised on the basis of a Supreme Court a 2018 judgment to address the loss of time faced by candidates.
However, NTA did not share the exact formula used to provide the grace marks to these 1563 students. “The students were compensated on the basis of questions attempted by them in whatever time was available to them,” Singh said.
Responding to the possibility that the exam will be re-conducted for certain students, the NTA DG said it will be decided depending upon the committee’s recommendations.
“The idea is to ensure that students who lost time or other students are not at any disadvantage,” he added.
Singh again denied the allegations of paper leaks and irregularities at the centres and asserted that the “integrity of the exam has not been compromised anywhere”.
On the issue of six of the 67 toppers from the same centre in Haryana, the NTA DG said, “We analyzed the overall result of that centre, and the average marks of the students from that centre were higher than at least 23 lakh students. They were already high-scoring students, and when the students were given grace marks due to loss of time, the students further benefited.”
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Earlier, NTA stated that the number of toppers increased this time because of the changes in National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks, and overall, students performed well due to the relatively easier question paper this time.
According to NTA, a question in the Physics paper was prepared using a new and revised NCERT textbook, while some students had prepared from old NCERT textbooks.
In the multiple-choice question format, while one option was correct according to the new NCERT book, another was right according to the old one. “The NTA got representation from the students on the same, due to which the NTA had to assign five marks to all students who had marked one of the two options. Due to this, marks of a total of 44 students increased from 715 to 720, which resulted in an increased number of toppers,” the NTA had said.
The question was based on two statements. The first – “Atoms are electrically neutral as they contain equal numbers of positive and negative charges.” The second – “Atoms of each element are stable and emit their characteristic spectrum.” However, NTA clarified that the committee will not look into the issue of marks given due to the Physics question.
The NEET-UG 2024 results have triggered a political row with opposition parties, including Congress and the AAP, demanding a probe into the matter.
