UGC-NET paper on darknet, panel to review NTA: Pradhan

Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday that a “specific question paper” for the UGC-NET was leaked on the darknet, leading to the cancellation of the exam that is used to screen PhD candidates, pick assistant professors and award Junior Research Fellowship (JRF).

The cancellation was announced on Wednesday in the midst of widespread anger over the possibility that another important national academic test, the NEET-UG that is used for medical college admissions, was leaked or its evaluation process bungled due to question errors.

The government, Pradhan said, will form a high-level committee to review the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA) that oversees such national examinations.

Taking both tests into account, close to 3.4 million people are affected due to the controversies surrounding the two tests.

Pradhan announced that the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) was cancelled within 24 hours of its conduct on Wednesday due to concerns about the integrity of the process.

“We tallied the questions on darknet with the original UGC-NET questions and they matched,” Pradhan told reporters. “We immediately decided to cancel the paper, and order a CBI inquiry into the matter.”

The decision came after the UGC received information from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which operates under the Union home ministry.

Pradhan said a new date for the UGC-NET, held twice a year, would be announced soon. The June edition of the exam was held June 18, with 908,580 candidates taking tests in 83 subjects at 1,200 centres.

On the criticism about the NTA’s functioning, Pradhan said: “I have said earlier also that there is a need for improvement in the functioning of NTA. Therefore, the government is going to form a high-level committee regarding reforms in NTA. The high-level committee will be expected to make recommendations to further improve NTA, its structure, functioning, examination process, transparency and data security protocols…Zero-error testing is our commitment”.

The high-level committee reviewing the NTA will include experts, technocrats, scientists, education administrators and academics. Pradhan emphasized the government’s commitment to “zero-error testing.”

The minister also addressed concerns about the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Undergraduate programs (NEET-UG), saying the government is in communication with Bihar authorities regarding an alleged paper leak incident there.

“According to the preliminary information, there are errors found in specific regions,” Pradhan said. “I want to assure you that once the information comes, strictly action will be taken against the guilty.”

He urged students not to believe rumours and requested opposition parties refrain from politicising the issue.

“According to the preliminary information, there are errors in specific regions. I want to assure you that once the information comes, strict action will be taken against the guilty. Even if we find involvement of senior officials of the NTA, strict action will be taken against them. In this whole process priority will be given to the interest of the students,” Pradhan said.

Pradhan also said that the incident of paper leak in UGC-NET is an “institutional failure of NTA”.

According to senior ministry officials, action is likely to be taken against senior NTA officials, including the director general of the testing agency. When contacted, NTA DG Subodh Kumar Singh refused to speak over it.

When asked if there is a possibility of scrapping NEET-UG, Pradhan said: “I would like to say humbly that we have to pay attention to the interests of lakhs of brilliant students who have passed that exam after working very hard. As I said in the preliminary information that the work of Patna police is commendable. They have been able to round up one isolated incident. Some more information is yet to come. Therefore, we will take final action on it soon. We are satisfied with their investigation. Officials of the Government of India and senior officials of Bihar Police are in constant dialogue…”

The Supreme Court is hearing petitions over the matter, including pleas to scrap the exam, and the matter will next be heard on July 8.