Mita Mukherjee

Amid growing demands for cancellation of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2024, the All India Save Education Committee (AISEC), an organisation of academics demanded scrapping of NEET and National Testing Agency (NTA) in view of the “ glaring discrepancies” that surfaced after the publication of the NEET 2024 results, officials of the committee said.

 The organization said the results raised “serious doubts” about the credibility of the NTA and it has urged the Centre to reintroduce the system of selecting candidates for admission to medical courses through state wise joint entrance examination (JEE) and demanded an impartial inquiry into the incident.

“We consider it to be a serious scam and demand an impartial inquiry by the Central government and exemplary punishment to the persons involved in the scam,” Tarun Naskar, a former professor of Jadavpur University and secretary of the AIESC, told EducationWorld.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has sharply criticized the Centre for the alleged discrepancies in NEET results and promised to be the voice of students in Parliament.

“Narendra Modi has not even taken oath yet and the scam in NEET exam has devastated more than 24 lakh students and their families. 6 students from the same exam centre top the exam with maximum marks, many get such marks which are technically not possible, but the government is continuously denying the possibility of paper leak,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on his X handle.

Expressing serious concern on the authenticity of the NEET 2024, the AISEC officials said, initially there were reports of paper leak after the NEET was held this year. Later, after publication of the NEET results, as many as 67 students were found to have scored the maximum 720 marks which was quite abnormal.

Out of these 67 toppers at least eight are from a particular centre of Haryana. Some students have scored marks as high as 718 and 719, which is impossible, the committee members said.

“These discrepancies have raised serious doubts about the credibility of the NTA. The standard of medical education is bound to decline if the NTA is allowed to conduct the NEET in this way. Therefore, the NEET and NTA should be abolished immediately,” Naskar said.

The panel also expressed concern over the NTA’s decision to declare the NEET result on June 4 when the whole country was engrossed in analyzing the results of the Lok Sabha polls.    

The AISEC has been opposing the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The NTA was formed to align with the recommendation of the NEP.

 Aspiring medical students and ordinary people have voiced their dissatisfaction with the ongoing controversy around the NEET UG result declared on June 4 and many of them have demanded that re-test be held.

The NTA later announced that a four-member high power committee had been formed to look into the complaints and said that the decision of conducting a re-test would depend on the outcome of the inquiry committee’s report.

Also read: Congress demands SC-monitored probe into NEET exam ‘irregularities’