New Delhi, 17 August (H.S.): Former Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has demanded accountability from the National Testing Agency (NTA) over the cancellation of the UGC-NET examinations in Sociology, English and Commerce. He also sought clarification from the examination agency over concerns about possible question paper leaks, alleging that thousands of candidates were being made to bear the consequences of the NTA’s lapses and would now have to appear for the examinations again in September after years of preparation.
In a post on social media platform X on Monday, Rahul Gandhi said the UGC-NET examinations for Sociology, English and Commerce had been conducted between June 22 and 30. Nearly two months later, the NTA cancelled all three examinations. He said the question papers contained errors and that some questions from previous examinations had been repeated.
Rahul Gandhi said thousands of candidates had spent years preparing for the examinations, paid application fees, travelled to examination centres located far from their homes and appeared for the tests. They would now have to repeat the entire process in September. “The NTA makes the mistake, but the students have to suffer the consequences,” he said.
He alleged that the existing system had ceased to function as an education system and had instead become one that takes away students’ money, years of hard work, mental well-being and confidence, while failing to provide employment in return.
Rahul Gandhi questioned the NTA over whether the question papers had been leaked before the examinations. He said the agency had so far failed to provide a clear answer to the issue. He further alleged that, like several other institutions under the Central government, the NTA does not acknowledge its mistakes and that accountability is not fixed when irregularities occur in examinations.
The Leader of Opposition said he had also raised issues concerning students and the examination system in Kota, Dehradun and Prayagraj, and would continue to raise the matter in the future.
Rahul Gandhi described the resignation of former Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan as a first step towards ensuring accountability. However, he said it should not be the final step and that the NTA leadership should also be held accountable.
Addressing candidates who will appear for the UGC-NET examinations again in September, Rahul Gandhi said they were not the problem. He alleged that a system had been created under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership that was incapable of conducting examinations properly and subsequently blamed students for the consequences.
It may be recalled that, in an official notice issued on August 16, the NTA said it had received several complaints regarding errors in the question papers for English, Commerce and Sociology in the UGC-NET June session. A committee constituted to examine the complaints found factual, typographical and translation-related errors, along with repetition of previously asked questions and other shortcomings in all three papers. Based on the committee’s recommendations, the NTA decided to conduct re-examinations for the three subjects.
According to the NTA, the re-examinations for English and Commerce will be held on September 9, while the Sociology examination will be conducted on September 10. Candidates will not be required to pay any additional fee for the re-examinations. Results for the remaining 84 subjects will be declared according to the scheduled timeline.
The NTA has also clarified that the re-examinations in the three subjects will not lead to any reduction in the allocation of seats for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), eligibility for Assistant Professor positions or admission to PhD programmes.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
