KYS protests outside Education Ministry over NTA failures, exam glitches
New Delhi: Activists of the student organisation, Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), on Tuesday held a protest at the Union Ministry of Education against the unending saga of repeated failures of the National Testing Agency (NTA), demanding accountability and structural reforms in the country’s examination system.
Bhim Kumar, a member of the Delhi State Committee, KYS, claimed that some of the activists were detained by the police and taken to an undisclosed destination.
The KYS demands that the Union Government and the Union Education Ministry should issue a public apology for the disorder and the Union Education Minister must resign, taking responsibility for the humongous mismanagement that has led to the marring of students’ future, he said.
He said, in a statement, that it should be noted that on May 3, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission into medical colleges was conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). However, within a few days, the NTA issued a public notice announcing the cancellation of the examination due to a paper leak.
He said this is not an isolated incident, but rather a repetition of numerous paper leak incidents. It should be noted that two years ago, in 2024, the NEET-UG examination and the UGC-NET examination papers were leaked.
Similarly, on May 30, the Common University Entrance Test (CUET-UG) was severely disrupted at various centres across the country due to gross mismanagement, technical glitches and server-related failures, the statement said.
At many centres, the examination could not commence at the scheduled time, forcing students to wait for hours under conditions of uncertainty and confusion, it said.
Students and parents faced severe inconvenience and disorder at several centres, including those in Noida, and protests were reported from a number of examination venues, it said, adding that, reportedly, at some centres the examination had to be cancelled after students had already been made to wait for several hours.
As a result, lakhs of students were subjected to immense hardship. Many candidates had travelled long distances from remote areas to reach their examination centres, only to bear the consequences of the NTA’s gross negligence and failure in examination management, the statement said.
The authorities also failed to provide clear and timely information to students, leading to widespread confusion and chaos, it said.
In such a situation, despite repeated incidents that continue to push the future of students into darkness, instead of ensuring strict action and dismissal of NTA officials, the Union Education Ministry has continued trying to cover up the issue, thereby clearly exposing its apathy towards lakhs of students appearing for these examinations, it said.
Moreover, the functioning of the NTA has been under serious scrutiny in recent years. The NEET-UG paper leak scandal and the corruption allegations associated with it generated widespread outrage among students and parents across the country, it said.
Similarly, irregularities and instances of mismanagement have surfaced repeatedly in examinations such as UGC-NET, CUET, and other national-level entrance tests. Despite this, the Union Government and the Ministry of Education have failed to ensure accountability within the NTA, said the statement.
The repeated scandals surrounding national and even state-level entrance and competitive examinations must also be viewed in the context of the growing commercialisation of education and the enormous influence exercised by the coaching industry, it said.