9 lakh students affected as govt cancels UGC-NET; Oppn strongly criticises

New Delhi: A day after more than 9 lakh candidates took the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) in 317 cities, the Ministry of Education (MoE) announced late on Wednesday night that it was being cancelled due to concerns raised by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs saying that "the integrity of the examination may have been compromised."

With this decision, UGC-NET—which is essential for obtaining a teaching position at the entry-level in Indian universities as well as for admission to PhD programs—becomes the first publicly administered test that is centrally administered to be discontinued after the introduction of a new anti-paper leak regulation by the Centre, Indian Express reported.

Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, which was passed by Parliament in February 2024 stipulates that anyone found guilty of "resorting to unfair means and offences" could face a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh and three to five years in prison, would most likely apply to this exam, according to sources.

Senior officials of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which administers the UGC-NET on behalf of the UGC and is already under fire for alleged irregularities in the administration of the NEET undergraduate exam—the single-window exam for admission to all MBBS programmes in India—were taken aback by the ministry's decision.

On Tuesday night, UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar tweeted that the NTA had “successfully conducted UGC-NET June 2024”. Calls made on Wednesday night were not returned by Kumar.

The National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, which is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs, provided the adverse inputs on UGC-NET, according to the ministry statement.

Sources claimed that irregularities were found at a few test centres, even as the statement did not explicitly reveal how the exam's integrity had been compromised. Furthermore, the fact that all 9,08,580 candidates had their exams cancelled suggests that the alleged compromise may have involved the first paper, which is taken by every examinee.

The first paper in UGC-NET is generic, while the second paper is subject-specific and depends on the candidate's area of expertise. There are 83 subjects available for the second paper. Together, the two papers have a total length of three hours.

The multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in both papers are of the objective type. There are 150 questions in total; 50 questions in Paper 1 and 100 questions in Paper 2. The exam has no negative scoring.

Speaking with The Indian Express, NTA representatives stated that this year's decision to hold the pen-and-paper versions of the UGC-NET and CUET-UG in June 2024 was made in an effort to add more testing locations in rural areas.

The government was criticised by the opposition parties in response to the decision, with the Congress calling it a "defeat of the arrogance of the Modi government." The cancellation of the test, according to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, "was a victory of the spirit of millions of students.”

“Narendra Modiji, you do ‘Pariksha pe charcha’ a lot, when will you ‘discuss NEET exam’? Cancellation of UGC-NET exam is a victory of the spirit of millions of students. This is the defeat of the arrogance of the Modi government due to which they attempted to trample on the future of our youth. The Union Education Minister had earlier said that no paper was leaked in NEET. When arrests are made of education mafia in Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana, the Education Minister accepts that some scam has taken place…,” said Kharge.

In his post on X, Kharge also said, “Modi Ji, please take the responsibility to stop your government’s rigging and paper leak in NEET exam too!”

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said every year the PM conducts a “grand tamasha of what he calls ‘Pareeksha pe Charcha’.” “Yet, his government cannot even conduct an examination without leaks and frauds,” he added.

The integrity of the National Testing Agency (NTA) is under severe doubt, he said.

Now the UGC-NET conducted just the day before yesterday has been cancelled last night, he said.

In fact, the government has been ruinous for India’s education system with the CUET (Common University Entrance Test) making a complete mockery of Class XII exams, Ramesh said.

The professionalism of NCERT, UGC, and CBSE has been destroyed, he claimed. “The New Education Policy of 2020, rather than preparing India’s education system for the future, only serves as the Nagpur Education Policy 2020,” he alleged.

“This is the legacy of the MA in Entire Political Science. Will he ever ‘Leak pe Speak?'” Ramesh said.

Soon after the cancellation of UGC-NET, the Congress on Wednesday dubbed the Modi government as “paper leak government” and asked whether the education minister would take responsibility now, PTI reported.

Rahul Gandhi, a senior Congress leader, is likely to meet with some NEET candidates on Thursday. The party also plans to bring up the matter in Parliament, which begins on June 24.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the general secretary of the Congress, also criticised the government, stating that corruption and leaks are deadly to young people. “The laxity and corruption of the BJP government is fatal for the youth… Will accountability be fixed now? Will the education minister take responsibility for this lax system?” she said in a post on X.

Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi said “The repeated and absolute failure to conduct national examinations fairly exposes the NTA’s incompetence”.

“This is an education emergency and also lets down lakhs of students who diligently prepare for these entrance exams, not to forget the mental pressure they go through. Cancelling is not the solution, accountability from the government and NTA is. This absolute disregard to young students and their careers is unfortunate,” she wrote on X.