Education minister must resign, NTA be scrapped: Sitaram Yechury on exam row

New Delhi: Amid continuing protests against the discrepancies in the NEET and furore over UGC-NET exam cancellation, Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday demanded the scrapping of the National Testing Agency and resignation of the Union Education Minister.

"Solidarity with our students -- India's future -- in their struggle to safeguard their academic standards from being destroyed by this ND alliance government led by (Narendra) Modi," Yechury said in a post on X.

Listing his party's demands, Yechury said the NTA system should be scrapped, and the Union Education Minister must resign.

He also said the students who gave recent NET and NEET exams must be compensated by the Union government, and the recently adopted system of mandatory NET score for PhD admissions should be rolled back.

"Withdraw proposals to replace existing admission procedures with centralised entrance tests," he said.

Communist Party of India General Secretary D Raja also demanded the NTA be scrapped.

"What's happening under the Ministry of Education is nothing short of criminal," Raja said in a post on X.

"They imposed the anti-federal, anti-poor NEET and jeopardised the medical education system of our country, depriving the marginalised of quality medical education. NTA's incompetency in conducting exams got exposed again after the cancellation of UGC-NET after paper leaks," he said.

The Left leader said it was "inhuman" to force students to write exams amid a scorching heat wave. "Students travelled to examination centres from far-flung areas only to find disappointment because the government is apathetic to their problems." Raja added that NTA must be replaced with a decentralised organisation.

"NTA must be replaced with a decentralised organisation. The entire centralised system of education needs to be debated now. Students who were betrayed by the NTA deserve compensation," he said.

The UGC cancelled the UGC-NET examination on Wednesday, a day after it was held, citing compromised integrity of the test.

UGC-NET test is held to determine the eligibility of Indian nationals for the award of Junior Research Fellowship, appointment as assistant professors, and admission to PhD in Indian universities and colleges.

The decision by the ministry comes amid a massive row over alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET. The matter is currently being heard at the Supreme Court.

The NEET-UG examination is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.