DailyPost 2855
RE- NEET 2024 OR NOT?
The aspiring doctors in the country, instead of getting ready to join their MBBS Course in different medical colleges in the country have got embroiled in a legal battle, which is being played out in the Supreme Court of India. In the normal scheme of things NTA could have taken stock of things as the Patna episode came to its notice, just after the completion of the exam. Whatever due diligence was followed in the backdrop of the Patna case during the process leading to the results remains unknown. There were other red herrings too, which should have caught the attention of the discerning eyes of an examination body.
All that was glossed over and the results were declared 10 days in advance of the announced date. Post the results what has transpired with regards to cases of paper leak and other irregularities in this exam as by now public knowledge. The investigations are still live and nothing about it can be told conclusively as it stands now about the complete nature, scale, intensity and impact of the paper leaks and other irregularities. Both the parties are in the court; NTA on one side and students on the other. While the NTA would like us to believe that leak was an extremely localised affair and has not impacted the fairness of the exam.
IIT Madras conducted a data analytics study based on the instructions of the court opined “there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted, leading to abnormal scores.” The court is running on the touchstone of large scale paper leak and visible and conspicuous impact. In an attempt to reach this magical conclusion, the Supreme Court directed the NTA to publish results city wise and centre wise, so that the anomalies become very visible. It was published today on the NTA website and it is presumed that the data would be subjected to much deeper scrutiny and analysis and that would help the court take a final decision on Monday.
What havoc a question paper can create in the digital world is broadly known. Leak, solver, dissemination, print, preparation et al. has become public knowledge based on investigation of the Bihar Police. The data put out in the open today does not throw light in the manner required to show a direct connection between the leak and performance, in a centre or city. The data itself should explain it all. The parameters by way of numbers or centres have not been spelt out. Possibly it can’t be. With the same data on Monday, both the sides would provide their interpretation of it, and which position the Court would accept will be known on Monday. The direct correlation which is being looked for is still elusive.
THE CREDIBILITY ISSUE CAN ONLY BE SORTED OUT BY A RE-NEET EXAM.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.