More than 20,00,000 candidates heaved sign of relief after lot of uncertainty when the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) Examination was finally conducted on 21 June 2026 without any major hiccup by the National Testing Agency (NTA). But the issues which have arisen on account of leakage of question papers time and again require serious thinking in the basic examination process.

Large Number of students compete for a limited number of MBBS seats, which are approximately 1,20,000. The pressure on the substantial number of students is taken advantage of by criminal networks who target “rush to pay” students and parents who are willing to pay large sums of money jeopardizing the integrity of examination.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) was created in 2017 as a Registered Society. Such an examination body which deals with fate of lakhs of students have to be accountable to the people of the country, which accountability can be created by an Act of Parliament. Though the Governing Body of National Testing Agency (NTA) consists of learned and experienced personalities from different fields of the society but the whether the Governing Body with an eminent person have failed to ensure free and impartial examination year after year. May be lack of Standard Operating Procedure or lack of supervision. Earlier, there was leak of examination paper in the year 2024.

Many other competitive examinations are conducted successfully every year such as Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission to the Engineering Colleges in the country as well as Common University Entrance Test (CUET), a national-level entrance exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for undergraduate admissions across Central, State, Private, and Deemed Universities in India. The CUET exam is held once a year. Around 13 lakh students appear for admission to Undergraduate courses.

But, the NTA and the NEET examination conducted by it, has failed to inspire confidence in the students in the process of examination. The NEET by NTA faces dissension year after year. A committee was established in June 2024 following a major NEET-UG exam paper leak, which exposed serious shortcomings in examination security and administration under the Chair of Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, former ISRO chairman, and included experts from academia, medical institutions, and skill development boards to suggest reforms in the system of public examinations for greater integrity. The committee presented with over 100 recommendations such as having NEET online, reducing the dependence on third party printing presses, enlarging the permanent staff of the National Testing Agency (NTA) etc. These suggestions may give temporary relief but fundamental issues to the entire process needs to be addressed.

Over, 20,00,000 students appear in an examination all over the country in one shift itself is risky as the question papers are required to be printed and distributed all over the country. Thus, about 1500 to 2000 students appear for single seat. The entire admission is dependent on single test to the coveted medicine college seats. I find that single test itself, the sole basis for admission, is problematic.

I understand from the newspaper reports that from the next year there will be a Computer Based Test (CBT) but if single paper is the basis of admission, the monetary considerations will continue to prevail. The fact is that such large number of students depend upon single paper will give rise to the challenges may be from different angles. The problem can be impersonation, leakage of questions as the paper is to be set by human beings only. Similar issue was faced in the State of Madhya Pradesh again for admission to the Medical College in the State on the basis of multiple choice questions (OMR) conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), popularly known as Vyapam (Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal). The admission to medical colleges was based upon single OMR question paper. Such examination faced many irregularities. This is another example how the single paper can play havoc.

The UPSC conducts examination for the Central Services of lakh of aspirants in two phases i.e. a preliminary examination and the main examination. The State Public Service Commission applies the same format. The large number of candidates appear in these examinations. The seats are limited even for public posts. Instead of single paper deciding the merit, I will suggest two stage tests. Stage one to have a preliminary examination whereas in the second stage, number of candidates who finally appear for the written examination can be 1:10 which is manageable. In this process the students will be still about 2,00,000 or so. Students will appear and their examination can be conducted online or in physical mode. By calling upon more than 20,00,000 students for 1,20,000 seats is giving false hope to the students that they are suitable for admission in a competitive world. We need to understand that all students are not cut out for medicine. Therefore, the students who qualify the preliminary examination, which is a short listing examination, will satisfy the students. Unsuccessful students can prepare for the next examination or to choose alternative career in life. There can be option to repeat test say up to the age of 35 years as the successful student are to discharge public duty of serving humanity. We need doctors to serve public.

The two-level examinations will act as a safeguard of the paper setters or the examiners as even if there is some mischief somewhere, still nobody will be in a position to guarantee a seat in the medical college. I understand that the leak of questions papers happened also at the paper setter level.

The norm in the Intelligence Services is that you should know as much as is relevant for you.

The system of objective type questions for preliminary examination should not be left to one or two persons but the number of the question setters and each one of them should provide pool of questions leaving the choice of ultimate question to be put in the question paper, known to the very selected view.

The statutory flavour to the National Testing Agency by self may not be sufficient but the Director General or the top Executive should be Secretary level Officer of the Government of India with team of experts from various competitive conducting bodies. The general public in the examination system is interested in the fairness of the conduct of examination so that the students feel that they have been dealt with fairly and evenly.

The demand of National Testing Agency should be disbanded is without any merit. Our is a wide country having many school education boards having different level of standards. There is no uniform standard of the examination process. Therefore, to choose the best out of a lot, there has to be a competitive test for admission to the professional Institutes which expect nothing but the best. Therefore, the National Testing Agency or whatever name is given is an absolute must but it should inspire confidence of the public more so all the students that they had a fair opportunity to compete for the test.

Much hullabaloo is being raised about the conduct of the re-test of NEET, 2026 but since none of the students aspiring for medicine seat have not been admitted so there is no academic loss except the students have to devote some more time to prepare for the second attempt. It is not an uncommon that the students repeat the examination.