The latest instance of the NEET controversy is the culmination of a scandalous situation brewing over years. Papers have been routinely leaked; the release of incorrect results has been connected to aspirant suicides; in this year’s exam, over 67 students got perfect scores against the average of two or three per year; grace marks were awarded to over 1,560 students for non-transparent reasons, resulting in the loss of trust in the NTA. The nationwide anger over the NEET exam has not subsided. Meanwhile, the government has cancelled the NET examination conducted by NTA, compounding doubts about its institutional integrity. What is important to understand is that cheating or fraud in NEET or NET and other such highly competitive examinations is only a consequence of bad policy.
The policy for instituting NEET was actively considered in 2010 at the Ministry of Health to address three problems. One, standardising the educational competence of students at the entry level as a majority of students of medical colleges were found to have negligible knowledge of basic sciences such as Chemistry, Physics and Biology. Two, reducing the number of entrance examinations from an estimated 46 to one. And three, to eliminate the capitation fees levied by private medical colleges by reducing their discretion and granting admissions based on scores.
Implementation of the “one exam NEET policy” was attempted in 2013, but was stalled due to the suspension of the scheme by the Supreme Court in response to private college petitions stating that NEET had centralised the admission process, taking away institutional autonomy. In 2016, a five-judge bench restored NEET.
A key issue that emerged in implementing this policy was the standard to be adopted for the examination since India does not have a uniform standard for school education. While central government schools follow the CBSE syllabus, states have their own syllabus that is of lesser difficulty compared to the CBSE. Of late, we have another standard of International Baccalaureate (IB) in most high-end private schools. With such wide variations in standards of education, it is a challenge to arrive at a mean standard, resulting in bias in favour of CBSE. The immediate implication has been that students passing the state examinations are forced to undertake additional coaching, resulting in the mushrooming of a Rs 58,000 crore coaching industry growing at 15 per cent per year.
The coaching industry is a consequence of a failed school system due to poor governance. Lackadaisical approaches, unending tinkering with the syllabus, a focus on rote learning rather than enquiry and scientific temper, poor quality of teaching and supervision, large vacancies and inadequate infrastructure have taken their toll. If the once famed government schools have deteriorated, the high-end public schools are only marginally better, giving rise to the policies of one national examination and coaching institutes. Even high-end schools are facing the reality of ghost classes with parents requesting their children to be enrolled in the school but allowed to attend coaching classes. Clearly, holding one-size-fits-all national examinations is a lazy response to fundamental systemic neglect of the school system over the years.
With the failure of the school system, alongside the intention to centralise the education system, which in reality is a concurrent subject, in 2017, the NTA was constituted with the mandate to conduct several examinations such as NEET. Since its establishment, the NTA has been ridden with complaints of irregularities, demonstrating its inadequate capacity to conduct complex and important examinations. Of concern is that both the ministries of education and health have virtually abdicated their responsibility to redress the adverse consequences of the policy of centralisation.
Tamil Nadu has always been opposed to the NEET exam as it was against their perfectly functioning state policy of linking medical college admissions to high school performance. In 2021, Tamil Nadu constituted an Expert Committee headed by Justice A K Rajan. The Rajan Committee brought out startling evidence, showing how rural students from Tamil medium schools lost out heavily in clearing the NEET — between 2017-21, from an average of 15 per cent admissions of Tamil-medium students, the number had fallen to 1.6-3.2 per cent. Likewise, the number of rural students admitted to government medical colleges fell from 62 per cent to 50 per cent. Clearly, NEET disadvantaged rural and poorer students. Tamil Nadu was particularly affected as its sound public health system rested on students from rural backgrounds willing to work in primary health centres without ambitions of migrating abroad unlike their counterparts — the rich, affluent upper-middle-class, urban-bred students aspiring for careers in corporate hospitals and going abroad. The state government made several requests to the Ministry of Health to review the NEET policy and even had their legislature pass a law scrapping the need to pass NEET for entry into medical colleges. This never got cleared due to the stubbornness of the Governor acting without jurisdiction.
The NEET policy needs a revamp based on inputs from all stakeholders, going beyond the polarised politics of today. Perhaps an all-party committee like the JPC would be able to harmonise local realities and varied levels of educational standards across states. Ideas for consideration could range from making the MBBS degree for six years with a pre-medical one year to bring students to “standard” in critical subjects of Zoology, Chemistry and Physics as was the case during the 60s and 70s; decentralising the examination to states and universities as it was during pre-NEET times; constituting regional boards or centralising only the qualifying examination for practising outside the state or going abroad and so on.
Both the education and health departments need to reflect and set right a policy gone wrong. The political leadership needs to build a more consultative and accommodative approach to manage the contradictions and flaws. The media needs to hold all states, not just Opposition states, accountable. And the judiciary needs to fill the void of poor governance and provide comprehensive guidelines for governments to act upon in the short and medium term.
The current NEET crisis is symptomatic of a failed state that is unable to ensure high-quality school education. Like in most countries, standardised schooling of good quality enables admission to colleges based on marks obtained in the school final examination. But in India, since standards are so varied and quality not assured, examinations for most professional courses are centralised. Due to the tough competition, committing irregularities for monetary gains becomes a great incentive. Clearly, the long-term solution is improving schooling quality, decentralising examinations, and institutionalising strict oversight and governance to restore confidence and credibility. Till that is done, the leakage of papers will continue to plague us.
The writer is a former Union health secretary, Government of India
