There was a difference between the National Testing Agency’s yardsticks for the NEET-UG retest last month and the original test in May in Haryana’s Jhajjar.

Sample the run-up to the retest. The NTA’s officials and principals of the exam centres meet the district administration. Two government officials get designated as special officers. These officers go on to ensure the security of vehicles carrying question papers, the presence of flying squads, and manage the nitty-gritty of the exam. This, besides the agency deploying eight staffers from the NTA and the ministry of education on the day of the retest in Jhajjar.

But it was all different on May 5, when the original exam at the three centres was left to a city coordinator – a private job-holder – to supervise. While that was in accordance with the NTA’s own guidelines, the alleged lack of flying squads in at least one of the centres, and the absence of “clear” instructions from the coordinator to others involved in the process, were not. 

There was a subsequent mix-up of question papers at the centres, a delay in the exam, the award of grace marks to many, with thousands of students now staring at uncertainty amid mounting pressure on the Narendra Modi government to scrap the exam and go for a wider retest.

Like Jhajjar, wrong sets of question papers were also distributed in Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh. After petitions before the Supreme Court challenged grace marks to a total of 1,563 students, including 494 from Jhajjar, retests were conducted on June 23.

For the first NEET exam in Jhajjar in May, the city coordinator was VN Jha, the principal of SR Century Public School, which was among the three private institutes turned into exam centres in the district along with Vijaya School and Hardayal Public School. Jha is not the only city coordinator under fire now as the CBI tries to probe alleged irregularities in the exam across the country. In Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, for example, the CBI has arrested NTA’s city coordinator and school principal Ehsan Ul Haq over suspicions of a role in a paper leak.

Meanwhile, the Centre has reportedly reached out to states to seek help in ensuring the integrity of upcoming exams such as the AIAPGET and the FMGE. The Union home secretary has reportedly requested the introduction of an additional layer of oversight from within government ranks at each exam centre. 

Under Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the Centre earlier set up a reforms committee to suggest measures to improve the NTA’s examination process. NTA chief Subodh Kumar Singh, under whose leadership UGC-NET and NEET-UG were held, was shunted out and put on compulsory wait in the Department of Personnel and Training.

The first exam: 3 centres, ‘confusion’, and ‘lack of instructions’

Each centre has a superintendent, two deputy superintendents and two observers. 

In Jhajjar, while the superintendents and deputies were teachers of the private schools which turned into centres, the six observers were faculty members of the government-run Nehru College. 

It was coordinator Jha’s job to train and coordinate with these teams. But a few members of this 15-strong team and the owner of one of the three schools alleged a lack of proper training and clear instructions that led to the distribution of the wrong set of papers on the day of the exam.

NTA provides two sets of question papers for NEET, each stored in a public sector bank in digitally sealed metal boxes – and the second one is only supposed to be a back-up paper to be used in case of paper leaks and emergencies, and is only supposed to be collected if required.

For the NEET-UG 2024, the primary paper was kept at the State Bank of India and the back-up paper at the Canara Bank. But the designated staff part of the exam process picked up both the sets on May 5. And when the seal did not open for the box containing the back-up papers, the lock was cut open, allegedly with the approval of the NTA, at the three centres.

A former NTA regional coordinator said, “The second paper is only supposed to be collected in the case of emergency and when the NTA alerts the bank. It shows that information was not even communicated to the bank.”

Newslaundry reached out to the SBI and Canara Bank. This copy will be updated if a response is received. 

Arjun Kindra, owner of Vijaya School, claimed the NTA had conducted “only one orientation programme for us in Delhi on Pusa Road on April 22”.  “From our centre, it was attended by the superintendent and both his deputies. NTA discussed everything in that conference but they did not share the basic information that there will be two sets of question papers and how they will be procured on the exam day. After that, they did not communicate with the centres. We got all the information from the city coordinator.”

Jha called a meeting with the superintendent and their deputies to brief them a day before the exam, on May 4, at about 10 am. The location of the papers was shared the next day when Jha told them to collect the metal cases from both Canara Bank as well as SBI, alleged Vijaya School’s deputy superintendent Sanjeev Kumar and observer Lalit Kumar, who were assigned to collect the papers for that centre along with observer Amit Bhardwaj. 

Jha told Newslaundry that he was “confused” even though the NTA had informed him to collect papers from only SBI. “On the exam day, NTA sent a text message in the morning that we have to collect question papers from the SBI. But I did not check my mobile because I was busy with the exam. And a day before the exam, I had received a message from both the banks that confidential material is kept with them. But the messages had not mentioned which one we have to collect question papers from. So I was confused and ended up collecting papers from both.”

Asked when NTA had briefed him about the papers, Jha said, “Maybe they had mentioned about it in their briefings. But it was not clear to me. I learnt that these are two different sets of question papers only after opening the boxes.”

Amit Bhardwaj refused to comment on the matter.

Deputy superintendent Sanjeev Kumar claimed that he had asked Jha why they collected all boxes. “He told us that it also contained some booklets. We asked him which one had to be distributed. He simply asked us to go to the school. We did not ask him more questions.”

Observer Lalit Kumar said that “we did not even know that there are two sets of question papers in two different banks. All we knew was that we had to collect metal boxes. I thought maybe what we are collecting are two parts of the same question paper.”

According to NTA instructions, the metal boxes were supposed to automatically open at 1.30 pm. But Kindra said that “only one box opened”. “When the other boxes did not open, we contacted the NTA Delhi office. They asked us to cut the lock with a cutter provided with it. So we did that.”

The same happened at Jha’s SR Century School. “So we phoned the NTA office, which asked us to open it using a cutter,” claimed Jha. Once the boxes were opened, Jha found there were two different sets of papers. “Until then I wasn’t aware of this.”

Kindra said they only stalled the process after a student raised an objection. “Till then we were not even aware that these were two different question papers.”

Kindra’s school called Jha to ask which question paper had to be distributed. “He said that you can distribute whichever question paper you want because both are from NTA,” Kindra claimed.

However, observer Lalit Kumar claimed Jha had told Vijaya School to distribute only SBI question papers. “Four students were given SBI question papers and the rest were given Canara Bank papers. The centre contacted the NTA Delhi office too. They initially asked them to distribute SBI question paper and then said that it is fine if you have distributed whichever question paper. This was to ensure there is no further loss of time.”

Jha also claimed that he had asked the schools to distribute SBI papers after being told that there were two sets. He claimed there was confusion because boxes at the centres were mixed up even though the NTA asked them to distribute question papers containing a particular code.

Sanjeev Kumar said the “confusion” wasted about 25 minutes of exam time so the centre decided to give an extra 30 minutes to aspirants. “We decided to do that on our own. No student can complain that there was a time loss at Vijaya School.” 

Superintendents of Hardayal Public School had also collected two sets of papers from both the banks. Anuradha Yadav, principal of Hardayal Public School, earlier told Republic World, “We collected two sets of question papers because the NTA asked us to do so.” 

When Newslaundry contacted Yadav, she refused to comment saying she had given enough media interviews. 

‘NTA bypassed all procedures’

After the exam is over, the city coordinators, school superintendents and observers receive an online feedback form from the NTA. 

Jha said that all the information was shared with the NTA “the same day. My duty was over. But now it is their responsibility to take action.”

“I had written to the NTA that the coordination at the exam centre could have been better…I had also shared details of which roll numbers were distributed which question paper,” claimed Lalit Kumar, adding that he had not heard back from the agency. “Maybe things could have been better had NTA themselves trained us. They organise this exam, they should train people on their own.”

Sanjeev Kumar raised similar concerns. “We have conducted several exams at our school, from CBSE to state…But they all send their officers to coordinate with us. At each centre, they send at least two to three coordinators. They send gazetted officers as observers and flying squads for random checking. But nothing of this sort happened for the NEET exam. The observers were also locals.”

“In case of CBSE exams, they have regional offices. We can call them anytime for our queries. But NTA does not even have offices in the state. Moreover, in other exams, the agencies send nodal officers to coordinate with district magistrate. They organise several meetings to explain each and everything.”

A district commissioner from Haryana, who did not wish to be named, said, “In many exams, like the ones even for a head constable, the chief secretary of the state holds meetings with all the district magistrates to ensure a proper procedure. Because if the responsibility is on a government employee, his entire career is at stake. But NTA has bypassed all these procedures and put the entire responsibility on a private school. What is their accountability?”

From ‘no meeting’ to changed strategy

A city coordinator supervises all the exam-related activities in a city for NEET-UG. He is the main link between the NTA and all the exam centres in that city, has all exam-related information, is responsible for managing, guiding and training superintendents and observers, and manages all the centres. It is also his duty to coordinate with the local police and the district magistrate or deputy commissioners to ensure peaceful conduct of the exam. One coordinator manages about 30 centres, and there are multiple coordinators in case of more centres. Usually, one centre has a capacity of over 500 students. 

The NTA entrusts this responsibility to a head of a private school or any institute located in that city. And this is different from how other exams are conducted. 

“From exams by the CBSE to Haryana Board School Education, Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test and even National Institute of Open Schooling, all these agencies concerned send their officers to supervise the examination and coordinate with the district magistrate. In most cases, the officers sent by them are senior government employees, whose jobs are at stake if anything goes wrong,” said a Haryana government officer who handles other exams in Jhajjar. “But the NTA does not send its permanent officers to monitor the situation…Entire responsibility is on the principals of private schools. How can they be fully trusted to monitor everything?”

The NTA changed the strategy for its retest.

The agency sought two special officers which were designated by the district authorities. They were block development and panchayat officer Yudhvir and naib tehsildar Kirti. 

“These special officers were following our vehicles when we had gone to fetch question papers,” said Mitta Adhikary, superintendent of Kendriya Vidyalaya which was one of the two centres of the retest.

Even the city coordinator was a staff member of the NTA. 

“There was no involvement of VN Jha… the coordinator was from NTA Delhi. There were also at least seven other officers from NTA and the ministry of education,” said Adhikary.

The two special officers along with a principal from one of the examination centres also held a meeting under Jhajjar deputy commissioner Captain Shakti Singh to review arrangements and procedure to collect and distribute question papers.

Deputy commissioner Singh said his office had no information about the question papers when the exam was first held in May. “NTA directly shares all the information with their city coordinators. Our job was to only provide them with extra support like medical aid or imposition of section 144, that too if they need it.”

Though there were policemen deputed at the centres, deputy commissioner Singh said no NTA representative came to meet him before the first exam. “No such special officers were appointed the first time.”

Jha also said that no such meeting was held the first time “because we had sent him (Singh) a letter that we need police officers. So we did not meet him.”

Newslaundry called the NTA office multiple times on the two contact numbers available on their website. They asked us to come to the NTA’s Delhi office in Okhla to get a response. When Newslaundry visited NTA’s office, we were not allowed to go inside with the guards telling us that the media is not allowed to enter the premises. The NTA’s website does not have office contact details of the offices of its members. Newslaundry has sent an email to the agency. This report will be updated if a response is received.

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