The Centre has sought a three-week extension from the Supreme Court for a committee set up by the Ministry of Education to submit its report on the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the examination process in the wake of alleged irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG exam.
The committee chaired by former ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan was constituted in June with the task of submitting its report to the Ministry in two months. When it formed the seven-member committee, the Ministry had said that the panel would make recommendations on three aspects — reform in the mechanism of the examination process, improvement in data security protocol, and the structure and functioning of the NTA.
In an order in August, the Supreme Court said that in addition to the tasks already entrusted to it by the Centre, the committee would also look into issues of examination security and administration, research and suggest advanced data security protocols, including encryption and secure data transmission methods to protect examination materials from unauthorised access and potential leaks, and review and recommend updates to the policies and Standard Operating Procedures of NTA to align with best practices. Considering the expanded ambit of the committee, the Supreme Court extended the deadline for the committee to submit its report to the Ministry of Education from the initial deadline of August 22 to September 30.
The Centre has now sought time till October 21 for the committee to submit its report. In its application before the court, the Centre has said that the committee has prepared a “comprehensive first draft” of its report, but the draft needs more improvement “to effectively communicate the essence of all the deliberations and consultations and bring out a robust road-map for conducting future national entrance tests”.
In its application, the Centre has also said that the committee has had 22 meetings so far to evaluate the current challenges and complexities in conducting “high-stake examinations”, potential risks, and security measures involved in the process. For this, the committee has held consultations with exam conducting agencies, state governments, police, regulatory bodies, academicians, students, technology solution advisors, and global testing experts. It had also sought suggestions online, and received 37,144 responses from students, guardians, academicians, and experts through the MyGov portal.
After a controversy over an alleged NEET-UG paper leak, and a retest for 1563 candidates who were given ‘grace marks’ for ‘loss of time’ in the NEET-UG exam held in May, three other public exams – UGC-NET, CSIR-UGC NET, and NEET-PG – were either cancelled or postponed.
In its order in August, the Supreme Court had said that there was no systemic leak of NEET-UG question papers which would warrant the cancellation of the examination. It had added that how the NTA had organised the exam this year “gives rise to serious concerns”.
