For the 22-lakh-plus aspirants of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for undergraduate medical courses or the NEET-UG re-exam, it’s time for the real thing. Their sole task at the moment is to revise course material with a single-minded focus, shutting out the surround sound on the May 3 test that had to be scrapped as a few greedy teachers and unscrupulous actors gamed the system to leak question papers. This Sunday’s nationwide test will give the students their last pen-and-paper opportunity to prove how worthy they are of the medical seats they aspire for. The exam will go digital from next year. It’s also important not to get scammed by fly-by-night operators claiming to hawk question papers on the dark web. Remember, shortcuts can cut you short. One set of cyber criminals has already been busted as they tried to skim off a portion of the ₹300 crore in fees reimbursed by the Union education ministry for the cancelled May 3 exam.
As important as it is for the students, the re-exam is a test by fire for the National Testing Agency (NTA) that is tasked with making the process safe, secure, fair and stress-free. It has been anything but this year; so the NTA has its task cut out. With constant monitoring at the highest level this time around and a multi-layered security cover put in place, unprecedented steps have been taken like deploying the Air Force for delivering question papers and assigning paramilitary forces to guard them from airports right up to the exam centres. Drafting the military into this critical supply chain gave a sense of emergency. It also speaks to the moral fibre of the nation’s civilian resources, though they continue to be part of the security grid.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court refused to quash an interim ban on the Telegram app to protect the re-exam’s integrity. The government in its defence characterised Telegram as the ‘new dark web’, as it was the preferred medium for rogues disseminating leaked papers, fake news and much else in between. Given all this, there is too much at stake for the NTA that is already facing calls for accountability. It will have no place to hide if there is any further slip-up.