Kamal Ghorui
Another NEET examination question paper leakage has come to the fore and shattered the young medical education aspirants once again. This leakage of NEET 2026 has been accepted after many days of the examination, and the NEET is slated to be redone. While something of a similar sort was alleged to have happened in 2024, the examination was not cancelled. Going further, reminds me of the cheating and impersonation rackets reported in medical admissions in the past as well. Such occurrences not only agonize the students but also disrupt the academic calendar, delay admissions and cause a crisis of trust in the public system responsible for ensuring a fair admission process. Undoubtedly, there have been instances of examination question paper leaks and other malpractices, but the breach of integrity happening quite often in admissions in medical education compels for looking at it from different perspectives. However, presently, in the NEET 2026 leakage, the investigations are on, and the findings may be there in due course.
From the perspective of students, appearance in any competitive examination is the culmination of relentless preparation by the candidate, sacrifices by the individual and family, emotional and financial pressure. The controversies around any competitive examination damage the moral basis of meritocracy and frustrate the examinees.
In the context of NEET 2026, more than 22 lakh examinees who appeared are either students of class 12 or those who have completed class 12 and continue preparation for admission test(s). In either case, the aspiring students are not of much age and cannot be directly instrumental in designing the paper leakage. Then who does it and why remains to be seen.
Like all other organizations, the examining body does possess a set of officials responsible for the conduct of the examination. But the degree of integrity, understanding, honesty, and commitment of the officials towards fair examination decides the manner in which any examination is conducted. In case of any mishap happening up to the time of conduction of examination, apparently, such acts of question paper leaks are not possible without the involvement of a person involved in pre-examination and examination conduction activities at one or more of the stages of question paper setting, custodian of question paper, moderation, proof reading, printing, transportation, and storage of question papers. Therefore, as part of the investigation, the person responsible for the loss of the confidentiality of the examination will be identified and punished. Nevertheless, there are two possibilities, i.e. whether the individual has been lackadaisical in handling confidentiality or lacks understanding of the seriousness of the pre-examination processes, or it is by sheer ignorance, or it is because of certain financial considerations at the back. In any of the situations, the onus falls back on those responsible for human resource engagement. There is no dearth of honest, knowledgeable, capable, and competent people of high integrity in the country, but the challenge lies in engaging them for the task. Quite frequent occurrences of breach of examination points to the incompetence and/or compromised integrity of officials responsible for the conduct of the exam, which inculcates a sense of helplessness and growing cynicism toward the examination processes.
As regards why it is being done, the answer lies in the lust for making money by exploiting the desperation of aspirants to get a suitable rank for securing the seat of choice. In UG medical education, the varying cost of education and quality of education in the available public or private institutions appear to be ushering in unfair practices.
A tentative review of the cost of undergraduate medical education in public institutions vis-à-vis private institutions shows huge variation. The MBBS degree in a private medical college may cost more than Rs. 60 lakhs and goes up to Rs 1 crore, while the expenditure in a public institution may be around Rs. 5 lakhs. Thus, the huge difference in the cost of medical degrees may be prima facie luring people with poor integrity and merit to explore the unfair routes to secure a good rank to fetch low-cost MBBS admission. A look at the number of seats in private and public medical colleges, as available on the website of the National Medical Commission, shows the capacity of 66443 seats of MBBS in 373 private medical colleges and 63160 seats of MBBS in 450 government medical colleges in the country. Thus, total seats in public sector institutions are fewer than in private sector institutions, and this seeds a strong temptation to get a low-cost MBBS seat in public sector institutes.
Way forward
In view of the severe consequences, the frequent paper leakages or other malpractices in examinations ought to be viewed very seriously, failing which the uncertainty of the fairness of examinations will create mental health issues in a large portion of the young population. Those at the helm have to realize that holding examinations is not merely an administrative exercise; they need honest and committed academics who can suitably weigh the importance of each activity involved, starting from announcement of examination, setting of question paper, moderation, printing, transportation, and storage, along with foolproof conduction and completing post-examination activities with utmost rigour. Concerted efforts are required to ascertain that any person with doubtful integrity or dubious past credentials or inadequate understanding of the examination conduction procedures is not engaged in it at any level. Simultaneously, the examination conducting body should maintain ample distance from the coaching institutions and stakeholders of society so as to remain immune to possible intrusions to breach confidentiality in lieu of money or any other consideration.
Given the instances of paper leaks, contemplation is necessary regarding getting rid of high-stakes single examination as a gateway to career path and permitting the states / institutions to hold their admission tests on their own as per their requirements and limitations. Multiple examinations have been in practice in the past, which were centralized for the convenience of candidates. But the associated challenge of some syndicates repeatedly succeeding in leaking the question paper(s) and resorting to unfair practices to favour some candidates calls for thorough rethinking.
The present culture of having multiple examinations to assess the learning levels after the eligibility qualification examination is passed is a big curse. Why should the board / university examination marks not be considered directly to decide the inter-se merit? Therefore, another measure is to strengthen the credibility of the class 12 board examinations / university examinations so that the marks awarded in final examinations can be directly considered for preparing the merit list of aspiring candidates, following the prescribed protocols for eliminating the variances.
As a nation, it is inevitable to strengthen the credibility of examining boards so that their assessments about any candidate can be used for assessing the suitability, and students need not invest their time and money in making special preparations for admission tests separately. Decisive reforms must be made with the sole intention of easing out the miseries of students and strengthening the education system, so that they can focus wholeheartedly on their intellectual development.
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