New Delhi, June, 08: The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday said that the education ministry has set up a panel to re-examine results of over 1,500 students awarded grace marks in medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2024. Addressing a presser, NTA DG Subodh Singh informed that the panel reviewing NEET-UG grace marks issue will submit its report within one week.
“Compensation with grace marks in NEET-UG has not affected qualifying criteria,” said NTA DG Subodh Singh on marks inflation row adding the result of NEET candidates who have been awarded grace marks might be revised, admission process will not be impacted.
“We have analysed all the things transparently and declared the results. Out of 4,750 centres, the problem was limited to six centres and out of 24 lakh candidates only 1,600 candidates. The integrity of this exam throughout the country was not compromised. We analysed our system and there was no paper leak,” NTA DG Subodh Kumar Singh said.
“There were certain issues raised by the candidates. This is the largest competitive exam in world or country which happens in a single shift with about 24 lakh candidates and 4,750 centres. The scale of this examination is one of the largest. There were issues at about six centres affecting about 16,000 candidates because of wrong distribution of question paper… candidates alleged that they got less time. We have replied in the High Court that we have formed a grievance addressal committee of experts. This committee will look into the details of time lost, including the reports from centre, CCTV footage,” Subodh Kumar Singh said.
Questions on the NEET-UG exam were raised after some candidates scored 718, 719 marks out of 720.
Several aspirants of the medical entrance exam NEET have alleged inflation of marks which led to a record 67 candidates bagging the top rank, including six from the same exam centre.
The NTA, however, denied any irregularities and said the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres are some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.
The results announced by NTA on Wednesday evening saw 67 students sharing rank one, including six from same examination centre in Haryana.
“After the NEET exam, now the NEET result is also in controversy. After the NEET results were declared, questions are being raised on six students from the same centre getting 720 out of 720 marks. Apart from this, many other irregularities related to the NEET exam have also come to light,” the Congress wrote on X.
“First due to paper leak and now due to result error, the future of lakhs of youth of the country is getting ruined. It is clear that this government cannot get any paper done without leaking it. Sir claims to stop wars in foreign countries but he is unable to even stop paper leaks in the country,” the party added.
Detailing the reason behind inflation of marks, the NTA said it received representations raising concerns about the loss of time during conduct of the examination.
“Such cases and representations were considered by NTA and the normalisation formula, which has been devised and adopted by Supreme Court, vide its Judgment dated 13.06.2018, was implemented to address the loss of time faced by the candidates of NEET (UG) 2024.
“The loss of examination time was ascertained and such candidates were compensated with grace marks. So, there marks can be 718 or 719 also,” it said in a statement.
Asked about the allegations of unclear implementation of grace marks, a senior NTA official told PTI that the question paper was prepared using a new NCERT textbook.
However, some students had old NCERT textbooks.
“We received a representation on this issue as well due to which NTA had to assign five marks to all students who had marked one of the two options. Because of this reason, marks of a total of 44 students increased from 715 to 720, which resulted in an increased number of toppers,” the official said.
After several court cases and representations raising concerns over loss of time during exam were received, a committee was formed to look into the matter, the official said, adding that the committee went through everything and the loss of time was ascertained.
On NEET Exam, Tamil Nadu BJP Vice President Narayanan Thirupathy says, “We have seen that the DMK and the other political parties in Tamil Nadu have been opposing NEET for so many reasons like it will affect the reservation and the regional language… They have been saying that the village or the district students may get affected in large numbers. They may not come. But all these allegations were proved wrong. There was no impact on the reservation after the NEET came. Now, more district students from various districts in Tamil Nadu are getting into medical education… To favour the private medical colleges, now again, they are coming with a baseless allegation saying that there was a paper leak which has not happened at all…”
With inputs from PTI
