In uproar against the NEET UG 2024 results that was announced on June 4, 2024, which has exposed irregularities and corruption in the conducting of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) by the National Testing Agency (NTA), AISA activists, and several NEET aspirants and their parents staged protests in New Delhi, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and other states.
Upon the nation-wide call for protest by AISA on June 10, students in New Delhi gathered at the Ministry of Education against the massive scam in NEET, and demanded that a re-test be conducted and that the NTA be dissolved.
At the public meeting held at the protest, JNUSU President Dhananjay said, "Today students and youth all over the country are rising up against the outrageous scams by the NTA, while the Ministry of Education remains silent." AISA Delhi State Secretary, Neha said, "In the last 7 years, there have been more than 70 scams, discrepancies and leaks by the NTA. The MoE has given a free hand to conduct almost every single test in the country and this has turned into a catastrophe for the youth!"
Several issues have cropped up after the results for the medical entrance exam have been declared.
There are 67 candidates topping the All-India Rank, which is unheard of. Candidates appearing for NEET have scored 720/720 in the exam.
Of the 67 candidates who have topped the exam, 8 are from the same exam centre in Haryana.
The NTA has claimed that grace marks were allotted to the candidates, resulting in full marks, due to a wrong answer from a wrong NCERT textbook. As many as 1,563 students were awarded grace marks due to "loss of exam time". NTA has said that the basis of giving grace marks was in pursuance of a Supreme Court's earlier decision regarding normalisation for CLAT online exam of 2018. This is flawed when applied to the NEET offline exam.
The NEET 2024 question paper was leaked in several locations and at least 13 people were arrested by the Bihar Police. However, the exam took place despite this leak.
The results were due to be declared on June 14. However, the results came to be declared on the same day that the Lok Sabha election results were declared, thus casting aspersions on the intent of NTA.
Time and again, paper leaks, rigging and corruption has become common in any public recruitment or entrance tests being conducted in the country. While unemployment is staring at the hopeful faces of youth, corruption and irregularities in the conduct of exams has made higher education inaccessible to students. While lakhs of students appear for entrance exams, the seats available are in thousands, thus making it highly competitive. For students to crack these exams, they are drawn to coaching centres, which creates an uneven playing field and inaccessible for students from all walks of life. We may also note that several students availing coaching in Kota (Rajasthan), have died by suicide while preparing for many entrance exams.
A delegation consisting of JNUSU President Dhananjay, AISA DU Secretary Anjali along with other students submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Education, demanding a re-test of NEET UG 2024, scrapping of the NTA, as also the policy of PhD admissions through NET. However, the Ministry only made empty statements and reiterated what was said in their press conference held a few days ago. The students responded saying that movement against the NTA and irregularities and corruption will be intensified.
Another protest was held in Delhi on June 11 in which AISA joined the protest call by NEET aspirants on NTA headquarters where the students raised their concerns about the faults in the exam process and the results.