NEW DELHI: The Centre informed Supreme Court through a late-evening affidavit on Wednesday that IIT-Madras conducted a comprehensive data analysis of the results of NEET-UG, which was marred by a question paper leak, and found no abnormality.
The govt submitted IIT’s report in court along with its affidavit and said, “City-wise and centre-wise analysis was done for two years (2023 and 2024) to find out if there were any abnormal indications.The analysis was carried out for the top 1.4 lakh ranks, given that the total number of seats across the country is around 1.1 lakh. It shows there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor localised set of candidates being benefited leading to abnormal scores.”
The Centre said it is approaching the issue in a manner to “ensure that no candidate guilty of malpractice gets any benefit, while also ensuring that 23 lakh students are not required to be burdened with a fresh test merely based on unsupported apprehensions”. It expressed commitment towards a robust examination system completely insulated from any malpractice.
The apex court will hear the matter on Thursday.
Higher NEET-UG scores due to 25% syllabus cut: IIT report
The court, while acknowledging that the leak and use of unfair means at a few centres in Patna and Gujarat had compromised the sanctity of the exams, had said it would order a retest if it was convinced that there was a systemic failure, and that the exams were vitiated to the extent that isolating the beneficiaries from untainted examinees would not be possible.
Citing the verification done by IIT-M, Centre remained hewed to its stand that leaks and irregularities were limited and localised.
On an unusually large number of students getting high scores in NEET-UG this year, the IIT report said, “There is an overall increase in marks obtained by students, specifically in the range of 550 to 720. This is attributed to 25% reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and centres, indicating very less likelihood of malpractice.”
Centre said IIT-M drew the conclusions by analysing NEET-UG results data with the help of Python for data processing, PostgreSQL for data storage and Metabase for analysis after seeking several data facts from National Testing Agency.
On counselling to be carried out based on NEET-UG results, Centre said, “For any candidate, if it is found that s/he has been beneficiary of any malpractice, candidature of such person would be cancelled at any stage during the counselling process or even afterwards.”
Responding to SC’s query on steps being taken to make future NEET-UG and similar exams glitch and malpractice free, Centre said it has constituted a seven-member committee of experts chaired by Dr K Radhakrishnan, ex-chairman of Isro and chairman, board of governors, IIT Kanpur.
“Confidentiality of question papers is the utmost priority in any examination and govt remains committed towards protecting interests of lakhs of students who have attempted the question papers fairly,” it said and cited enactment of Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act by Parliament on Feb 12.
The govt submitted IIT’s report in court along with its affidavit and said, “City-wise and centre-wise analysis was done for two years (2023 and 2024) to find out if there were any abnormal indications.The analysis was carried out for the top 1.4 lakh ranks, given that the total number of seats across the country is around 1.1 lakh. It shows there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor localised set of candidates being benefited leading to abnormal scores.”
The Centre said it is approaching the issue in a manner to “ensure that no candidate guilty of malpractice gets any benefit, while also ensuring that 23 lakh students are not required to be burdened with a fresh test merely based on unsupported apprehensions”. It expressed commitment towards a robust examination system completely insulated from any malpractice.
The apex court will hear the matter on Thursday.
Higher NEET-UG scores due to 25% syllabus cut: IIT report
The court, while acknowledging that the leak and use of unfair means at a few centres in Patna and Gujarat had compromised the sanctity of the exams, had said it would order a retest if it was convinced that there was a systemic failure, and that the exams were vitiated to the extent that isolating the beneficiaries from untainted examinees would not be possible.
Citing the verification done by IIT-M, Centre remained hewed to its stand that leaks and irregularities were limited and localised.
On an unusually large number of students getting high scores in NEET-UG this year, the IIT report said, “There is an overall increase in marks obtained by students, specifically in the range of 550 to 720. This is attributed to 25% reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and centres, indicating very less likelihood of malpractice.”
Centre said IIT-M drew the conclusions by analysing NEET-UG results data with the help of Python for data processing, PostgreSQL for data storage and Metabase for analysis after seeking several data facts from National Testing Agency.
On counselling to be carried out based on NEET-UG results, Centre said, “For any candidate, if it is found that s/he has been beneficiary of any malpractice, candidature of such person would be cancelled at any stage during the counselling process or even afterwards.”
Responding to SC’s query on steps being taken to make future NEET-UG and similar exams glitch and malpractice free, Centre said it has constituted a seven-member committee of experts chaired by Dr K Radhakrishnan, ex-chairman of Isro and chairman, board of governors, IIT Kanpur.
“Confidentiality of question papers is the utmost priority in any examination and govt remains committed towards protecting interests of lakhs of students who have attempted the question papers fairly,” it said and cited enactment of Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act by Parliament on Feb 12.