The NEET-UG for admission to undergraduate medical education will from next year be a computer-based test conducted across five-six days at around 1,000 centres in 500 cities, mainly government institutions such as Kendriya Vidyalayas, with around 5 lakh candidates to be accommodated each day, The Indian Express has learnt.
The Government is also set to overhaul the National Testing Agency (NTA), the nodal autonomous body that conducts NEET-UG apart from other entrance tests to higher educational institutions — a revamp that will cover the agency’s organisation, infrastructure, technology and processes, sources told this newspaper.
“We are going to change the entire organisation of the NTA, from top to bottom,” sources said, adding that the exercise is expected to be completed before October. There are around 150 posts sanctioned in the NTA.
These proposals by the Ministry of Education come in the wake of the paper leak that led to this year’s NEET-UG being held again, after the first exam on May 3, in which around 22 lakh candidates appeared, was cancelled, triggering outrage, protests and a CBI probe.
Sources said the move is based on recommendations of the high-powered seven-member committee headed by former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan, constituted by the Centre in 2024 in the wake of a paper leak that year.
On May 15, while announcing the NEET-UG retest on June 21, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said that the exam, which has been a pen-and-paper exercise, would be computer-based from next year. Pradhan had said the switch was based on a recommendation of the Radhakrishnan committee — but the suggestion had not been implemented so far.
According to the plan for next year’s NEET-UG, sources said, most of the centres being identified are government institutions, including Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas, while “some reputed private institutions may also be made centres”.
Each of these centres will accommodate around 500 candidates every day, sources said. A detailed notification, including shift timings, the list of test cities and other details, is expected to be issued after the proposed NTA revamp is completed.
Referring to allegations that only those down the chain, such as question-paper setters and translators, have been arrested so far in the latest paper leak, and not the main figures, sources said: “As far as criminal action is concerned, investigations are going on and no one will be spared if he or she has committed the crime.”
Recently, top officials from the Ministry of Education and the NTA appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports to brief members on the steps being taken to strengthen the entrance examination system.
Following the NEET-UG leak, The Indian Express investigated the status of cases linked to 45 major exam paper leaks over the past two decades in which each exam had at least 1 lakh candidates — it found that only two of these cases have led to convictions.( _IE_ )
