NEET Row: National Testing Agency (NTA) chief Subodh Kumar was sacked amid the ongoing row surrounding the NEET-UG 2024 and UGC-NET exams, which severely impacted the agency's credibility, sources in the Ministry of Education told ABP Live. The sources added that students began losing confidence following reports of paper leaks.
The sources further stated that there was no provision to give grace marks for the loss of time during the examination. However, the testing agency had awarded grace marks to 1563 candidates due to the loss of time during the exam, which sparked the controversy. The agency claimed it followed the same normalisation formula approved by the Supreme Court in relation to the CLAT examination in 2018. Nonetheless, the NTA later withdrew these grace marks.
Sources in the education ministry said it was wrong to cite the example of the CLAT exam for giving grace marks.
Kumar was replaced by IAS (Retd) Pradeep Singh Kharola, who will now helm the exam body. Kharola has been given additional charge of the post of Director General, NTA, Ministry of Education.
Centre’s Committee For Transparency Of NTA To Meet Today
Centre's seven-member high-level committee formed to oversee transparency and look into the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA) to meet today, news agency ANI reported citing Education Ministry sources.
Notably, the National Testing Agency conducted a retest of the NEET-UG examination on Sunday for the 1,563 candidates, who were awarded grace marks to compensate them for their loss of time during the exam, conducted on May 5. However, even after the raging controversy and demands for re-examination, nearly 48 percent of the candidates did not appear for the retest on June 23, 2024. Out of the total 1,563 candidates scheduled to appear for the NEET-UG retest, only 813 of them took the exam.
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