No provision to give grace marks for "time loss", method "odd": Sources on NTA shortcomings after chief sacked

The Centre, earlier in the day, removed the Director General of the NTA, Subodh Kumar Singh and placed him on 'compulsory wait' in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

There has been no provision to give grace marks for "loss of exam time," and it was done through an "odd method," sources at the Education Ministry said on Sunday while admitting shortcomings on the part of the National Testing Agency (NTA) in conducting the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance-Test (NEET) (UG) Examination 2024. The Centre, earlier in the day, removed the Director General of the NTA, Subodh Kumar Singh and placed him on 'compulsory wait' in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

While reacting to the development, sources at the Education Ministry said, "The NTA failed to assure candidates. There has been no provision to give grace marks. This is the first time grace marks have been given to candidates. As per the rules, the candidates should have been given extra time if there was some time loss. And then the grace marking was done through the odd method." The NTA faced huge criticism over alleged irregularities and paper leaks in two of the country's biggest competitive examinations, NEET UG and UGC NET.

NTA awarded grace marks to 1564 candidates due to a loss of exam time. The body followed the same normalisation formula that had been approved by the Supreme Court in relation to the CLAT examination in 2018, when something similar occurred. However, NTA later withdrew these grace marks. The NTA also conducted a retest for 1,563 candidates. Of these 1,563 candidates, only 813 students (approximately 52 per cent) appeared for the retest.

The exam was conducted after the NTA withdrew grace marks awarded to students who were compensated for loss of time due to delay in the start of the examination at six centres in Meghalaya, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Chandigarh. A total of 17 students, who took the NEET-UG examination from centres in Bihar on May 5, have been debarred based on the Bihar government's Economic Offences Unit (EOU) report.

The Centre has now handed over the alleged paper leak matter to the CBI. The UGC-NET was cancelled on June 19, a day after it was conducted, following input that the integrity of the exam was compromised. The Union Health Ministry also announced the postponement of NEET-PG entrance, a night before the entrance exam, as a "precautionary measure" in the wake of recent allegations about the integrity of certain competitive exams.

The move comes a day after the June edition of the Joint Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and UGC-NET was postponed. The Joint CSIR-UGC-NET is a test conducted to determine eligibility for junior research fellowships, assistant professor and admission to PhD in science courses. (ANI)

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