There are more than a thousand different career options available for 12th grade students to choose from, but due to a lack of career counseling and proper guidance, more than 20 lakh students write the NEET exam every year for 1 lakh seats. Such a large number of students begin to wear the tag of failure at the very onset of their career journey. If the trend persists in a country like India, the dream of the government accelerating the growth of the education system to become a Vishwa Guru (world teacher) seems to be a pipe dream in reality.
The NEET 2024 exam is being conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). The result was scheduled to be announced on June 14, 2024, but it was published 10 days earlier than its predestined date. The exam was conducted on May 5th in 571 cities at 4750 centers in India and 14 abroad.
India is a magical land known for throwing surprises at everything it does. Presently, the NEET result has come forward to shoulder the responsibility of throwing surprises by announcing 67 students getting full marks and, at the top of it, six students from the same centers.
NTA came out with an explanation to balm the wound of students: the high number of toppers were due to grace marks given to students who lost time for getting two OMRs in the same examinations. The rising confusion caused a loss of time in starting with the right set of OMRs. The mismanagement appeared in the first place to conduct the NEET exam. In addition to that, a few incidents of paper leaks were reported here and there. In multiple-type questions, one answer is supposed to be right, but this year, one question has two correct answers. It again raised confusion among the NEET aspirants.
Considering all these matters seriously, NTA decided to award grace marks to compensate for lost time. As a result, 67 students got full marks (720 marks), which is very hard to digest. However, despite getting full marks, they will fail to secure their places in the premiere institute because the general category has only 46 seats. Making the situation worse, six toppers belong to the same centres in Jhajjar, Hariyana, claimed by Physics Wala, an institute known for guiding students for medical and engineering aspirants in India. The last three digits of their role numbers are very close to each other, such as 168, 178, 186, 198, 333, 403, and 460. Alakh Pandey, founder of Physics Wallah, said outrightly, “Chances are very rare for this to happen. 67 students appear fit for the same spot. All mathematical calculations suggest that the probability of such results happening will take a hundred crore years to repeat.” He further goes on to say that one of his students on the toppers list was getting 680 marks out of 720 regularly in the test conducted by the institute.
A petition was filed by NEET-UG candidates, and the Delhi High Court ordered the NTA to present and give a befit explanation for the gross mismanagement that occurred, which jeopardized many students lives. Following the mismanagement of the NEET exam, one aspirant committed suicide.
Parents are also advised to explore many other options available for 12th grade students for shaping their careers in life. Depression, suicide, and many other such incidents are becoming a regular feature in India. An overhaul of the education system and its competitive exams are of paramount importance to parents and the government, respectively.
Further Development: NEET Retest Conducted on June 23, 2024
In order to rectify the errors committed in NEET exam conducted on May 05, 2024, in which 67 students got the full marks (720 marks), the National Testing Agency (NTA) conducted retest of NEET exam on June 2023 and result got announced on July 01, 2024. Surprisingly, none of the students have got full marks this time.
Following the intervention of the Supreme Court, the NTA decided to take a fresh retest of 1563 NEET aspirants from six centres, such as Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Surat, and Meghalaya. The NEET aspirants of these six centres complained that they did not get enough time to complete the exam because of the confusion created by OMR sheets.
Of 1563 students, 813 appeared to write the retest, but this time no one scored full marks in the re-exam or retest.
However, another section of students complained in the Supreme Court to scrap the exam entirely and stop the counselling process, by which students are allotted admission to different medical colleges. Moreover, the Supreme Court denied issuing any further interim orders regarding it and assured students they would hear their plea on July 8.