Govt committed to ensure fair conduct of examinations: MoS Education Sukanta Majumdar

New Delhi: The government is committed to ensure fair conduct of examinations and trying to strengthen the system to prevent any malpractice, Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar said on Wednesday in the Rajya Sabha.

Replying to queries during Question Hour related to irregularities in the NEET (UG) exam held last year, the minister cited a Supreme Court order to assert that there was no systemic failure and the government has already asked CBI to investigate the matter and five charge sheets have been filed against 45 people in the paper theft case.

Majumdar said the government has passed a new law 'Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024' and implemented many recommendations of the K Radhakrishnan committee.

"Our government is committed that examinations are held in a clean system. We assure that under the Modi government, we will not allow any malpractice," he said.

Already, he said, the Supreme Court has given a verdict that there is no systemic leakage. "So, if we call it a leakage then, we are disobeying or disrespecting the verdict of the Supreme Court." Steps are being taken and will be taken against those who have availed unfair means, Majumdar said.

"In the new Act, we have made some provisions through which we can punish those people who will try to breach the system. We are trying to strengthen our system so that no one can breach our system of examination," he said, adding that the National Testing Agency (NTA) is using CCTV and also metal detectors for searches.

The minister said that if the recommendations of the Radhakrishnan committee are implemented fully, "then, I think, this type of incident will be curbed".

The NEET (UG) 2024 Examination was conducted by the National Testing Agency on May 5, 2024.

"After the conduct of NEET(UG) 2024 Examination, certain cases of alleged irregularities/cheating/malpractices were reported," Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said in a statement earlier.

The ministry had asked the CBI to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the entire gamut of alleged irregularities, including conspiracy, cheating, and breach of trust with respect to the NEET(UG) 2024 Examination.

"As on November 21, 2024, the CBI has filed five charge sheets in the NEET(UG) paper theft case against a total of 45 accused," Pradhan said.

Names of candidates, who are beneficiaries of the paper theft/unfair means and names of the MBBS students who had solved the stolen paper or who had appeared in the exam as impersonators have already been identified and sent to concerned authorities, as the case may be, for necessary action, he had stated.

In order to suggest effective measures for transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations by NTA, the ministry constituted a High-Level Committee of Experts (HLCE) on June 22, 2024, headed by K Radhakrishnan, former Chairman ISRO and BoG, IIT Kanpur.

The committee submitted its report on October 21, 2024, and recommended the Reformation of National Common Entrance Testing, including the strengthening of NTA, institutional linkage with states, involvement of Test Indenting Agencies as Knowledge and Examinations partners etc.

The panel also laid out measures and recommended Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to prevent breaches in Pen and Paper Test (PPT) and Computer Based Test (CBT) examinations.

The committee also recommended the constitution of a high-powered steering committee to monitor the implementation of recommendations of HLCE on NTA and the same has already been constituted.