Over 20 lakh student sighs of relief after smooth NEET-UG retest
NEW DELHI: National Testing Agency (NTA) and education ministry kept their fingers crossed until the final answer sheets of India's largest entrance exam, NEET-UG, were sealed on Sunday, bringing to a close a high-stakes retest conducted under the shadow of the May 3 paper leak.
Organised in 37 days, far short of the four-six months the exercise would ordinarily require, the retest to admissions to under-graduate medical courses passed off without any reported breach or major disruption - a relief to the agency and education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who have come under fire since the scrapping of the exam. NTA has called the retest "a fair chance, a fresh start".
Pradhan monitored the conduct of the test - taken by over 20 lakh candidates at 5,440 centres in India and 14 abroad - from NTA headquarters in Delhi's Okhla till it ended, for any fresh lapse would have intensified the credibility crisis surrounding the exam. He reviewed feeds from command-and-control centres and called up exam centres too.
Biology was easy, physics tough, say NEET aspirants
Pradhan reviewed inputs from command-and-control centres, from the ministry at the national level, 34 centrally funded higher education institutions in every state, and district collectorates, sources said.
The arrangements were part of a larger security and logistics grid - involving security and intelligence agencies, IAF to transport question papers, and ministries of railways, home affairs, defence, health and IT - put in place to eliminate lapses. The May 3 exam was cancelled after more than 120 questions allegedly overlapped with material circulated before the test. It triggered a CBI probe, and several people were arrested, including those who were on the paper-setting panel.
Organised in 37 days, far short of the four-six months the exercise would ordinarily require, the retest to admissions to under-graduate medical courses passed off without any reported breach or major disruption - a relief to the agency and education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who have come under fire since the scrapping of the exam. NTA has called the retest "a fair chance, a fresh start".
Pradhan monitored the conduct of the test - taken by over 20 lakh candidates at 5,440 centres in India and 14 abroad - from NTA headquarters in Delhi's Okhla till it ended, for any fresh lapse would have intensified the credibility crisis surrounding the exam. He reviewed feeds from command-and-control centres and called up exam centres too.
Biology was easy, physics tough, say NEET aspirants
Pradhan reviewed inputs from command-and-control centres, from the ministry at the national level, 34 centrally funded higher education institutions in every state, and district collectorates, sources said.
The arrangements were part of a larger security and logistics grid - involving security and intelligence agencies, IAF to transport question papers, and ministries of railways, home affairs, defence, health and IT - put in place to eliminate lapses. The May 3 exam was cancelled after more than 120 questions allegedly overlapped with material circulated before the test. It triggered a CBI probe, and several people were arrested, including those who were on the paper-setting panel.
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