DailyPost 2828
FAIRYTALE PROMISES STORY TO NUT BOLTS (NTA CASE STUDY)
Democracy is the journey between fairytale promises and having hands on, on the nuts and bolts of the system, a sector, an area or an activity and delivering it. It is a hard toil not only to understand and gain expertise but even more than that, practise it and that too successfully for long, so as to deliver unfailingly over and over again. It might like establishing an institution, practice and process afresh and make it click. It might also mean adding features or elements to an established workflow or redesign it. in the changed environment. More often than not in today’s changed and fast moving environment, making changes and then taking it to a robust level to deliver, has become the order of the day.
While the fairy tale promises were being dished out at a breathtaking spree, as a part of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the NEET scandal as is being revealed now, was being executed with professional precision, exactly at the same time. Did anybody from the government spend any time on it? Whether the Education Minister and the top political executive are absolved of their ministerial responsibilities, while being busy with the elections, is another democratic knot that needs to be sorted out, sooner or later. The promises of stopping paper leaks and law against it was all a part of the electoral sugary syrup. And it cannot be more ironic, the results of both the elections and NEET 2024 were declared the same day; premeditated or otherwise only the time will tell.
The flamboyance at fairytale promises is of super practitioners’ level, but equally tragic is the nearly missing expertise of the nuts and bolts of the system. Today, we are forced to give thought to the foundational question, whether the NTA and system in the present avatar is in any way capable of delivering an exam of this nature. Do they have the wherewithal to conduct an offline exam of this magnitude? Are they comfortable with the ecosystem in which they work, from the first level planning till the declaration of results.? Or any Chintu or Pintu can play a practical joke on the nation and yet we don’t know what to do? The cases were out in the open just around when the exam was conducted, was any due diligence in that regard before the declaration of results. It seems they treated the cases as non-issue and that they could ride roughshod.
The exam results were full of red herrings; from the number of toppers, one centre excelling in an unimaginable way, inflation in marks / ranks, grace and the nature of it etc. NTA would have seen many more glaring issues while the results were being prepared. Was it dealt in a professional and satisfactory manner? Was the quality of the question paper, which as per them gave the bumper results, in consonance with quality NTA’s principles. Who are the experts in this area at NTA? With paper leaks all around the place for quite some time, was security made a designed element in the conduct of these exams. In hindsight it does not seem so. Who are experts in this area at NTA? And finally cyber security, is it still not treated as important? It has been finishing institutions and systems. Do the logistical capabilities of NTA match the requirements? Total transparency of resources is a must; experts be made known – from those creating question papers to the final results, processes, safeguards, security inclusive of cyber security, response to criminal cases, red herring management to name a few. Are there any Business Case Studies on paper leaks and other exam irregularities, a compulsory read for NTA? How does it chalk out strategies to mitigate it?
THE SUM TOTAL OF EXPERTISE AVAILABLE WITH NTA DOES NOT MATCH WITH THE TASKS TO BE PERFORMED WITH PRECISION BY IT.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.