Education Ministry Forms High-Level Committee To Review Results

The Union ministry of Education has recently formed a four-member high-level committee to re-look at the results of 1,500 students, who were given grace marks for loss of time during the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET-UG) examination on Saturday.

Talking to media, NTA Director General (DG) Subodh Kumar Singh announced, that the four-member panel will be led by former chairperson of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

Further, NTA general director also said, ‘The committee will look into the issue of compensatory marks given to these 1,563 students. It will submit its recommendations within a week, and on the basis of the results of these candidates, might be revised. Everything will be done in a time-bound manner so that the process of counselling and admission will not get affected’.

In addition, he has also asserted, the grace marks don’t impact exam’s qualifying criteria and candidates’ results review will not affect admission process.

But when asked about formula used for providing grace marks, NTA chief answered, that it was devised on the basis of 2018 supreme court judgement (which addressed loss of time faced by students).

Addressing the possibility of re-examination for certain students, NTA DG clarified, it will be decided based on the committee’s suggestions.

However, he dismissed paper leaks and irregularities allegations at centres and emphasized on exam’s ‘integrity.’

Issue of Six students From Same Centre

Talking about the issue of six students out of 67 from same centre in Haryana, NTA DG said, ‘We analyzed the overall result of that centre, and the average marks of the students from that centre were higher than at least 23 lakh students. They were already high-scoring students, and when the students were given grace marks due to loss of time, the students further benefited’.

How Toppers Increased This Year

Earlier, NTA asserted, that changes in National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks and relatively easier question set, were the main factors behind the rise in toppers this year.

As per NTA, questions in Physics paper were set on new and revised NCERT textbooks, while students prepared from old NCERT version.

In the multiple-choice format, while one option was correct according to updated NCERT book, at the same time, another option was correct based as per previous edition.

‘The NTA got representation from the students on the same, due to which the NTA had to assign five marks to all students who had marked one of the two options. Due to this, marks of a total of 44 students increased from 715 to 720, which resulted in an increased number of toppers. ‘