Only one day after it was held, the Ministry of Education ordered the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) UGC-NET exam to be cancelled. This ruling, which the Supreme Court is reviewing, comes after controversy surrounding the NEET medical entrance exam.
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The Reasoning Behind
The Education Ministry stated that the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) provided information that suggested possible vulnerabilities in the exam’s integrity, which is what led to the cancellation.
“To ensure the highest level of transparency and sanctity of the examination process, the Ministry of Education, Government of India has decided that the UGC-NET June 2024 Examination be cancelled,” the ministry stated in a statement.
New data will be shared separately to conduct a new examination. The Central Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I.) will concurrently receive the case for a comprehensive investigation, the statement continued.
Congresswoman Priyanka Gandhi Vadra responded to the announcement, denouncing the government’s “laxity” and demanding that accountability be established.
The Day of the Exam
UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar wrote on X on Tuesday, stating that NTA successfully conducted UGC – NET June 2024 today in 83 subjects using OMR (Pen and Paper) mode in two (02) different shifts (09:30 AM to 12:30 Noon and 03:00 PM to 6:00 PM) to identify the eligible candidates for (i) “award of Junior Research Fellowship and appointment as Assistant Professor,” (ii) “appointment as Assistant Professor and admission to Ph.D.,” and (iii) “admission to Ph.D. only,”
This time, the National Eligibility Test (NET) was administered using pen and paper, which was a change from past procedures. 317 cities nationwide hosted the exam, which was taken by 81% of the 11.21 lakh registered candidates.
About the UGC-NET exam
To find out if they qualify for positions in universities and colleges as “Assistant Professors,” “Junior Research Fellowships,” and assistant professors, Indian residents can take the UGC-NET exam. Twice a year, in June and December, the NTA normally administers it in Computer-Based Test (CBT) format.
Candidates who meet the requirements for an assistant professorship are evaluated according to how well they performed on Papers I and II of the UGC-NET test. A candidate for an assistant professorship or to conduct research can be considered for a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF). University, college, and state governments have different policies regarding assistant professors.
The NEET Row
When the NEET-UG results were made public on June 4, it quickly became apparent that 67 individuals had scored a perfect 720/720, and some students had scores of 718 or 719, which some felt were impossible given the format of the test. The NTA blamed this on a variety of factors, including a very basic paper, the decision to award extra credit to students who were tardy or mistakes committed by invigilators or NTA staff, and a misdirected question.
While the NTA has made the decision to cancel the grace marks granted to 1,563 applicants, who were initially given time compensation, and told them to retake the exam, the administration has been disputing claims of irregularities and paper leaks in Godhra and Bihar. Dharmendra Pradhan, the minister of education, has informed reporters that the perpetrators will not escape punishment if any of the accusations prove to be accurate.
