Lessons from NEET Exam

June 24, 2026

The NEET (UG) exam, for admission to undergraduate medical courses, was rescheduled on Sunday at 5,454 centers across the country. The exam was conducted amid unprecedented arrangements. These included the use of the Air Force to transport question papers to exam centers, the suspension of the Telegram app, the creation of a barricade to prevent senior medical students from interacting with new students, and the isolating examiners from normal life, telling them to focus solely on the exam, even social interactions, in the days leading up to the exam. Students were sent to exam centers only after a three-tier screening: biometrics, physical examinations, and other document verification. Seven hundred thousand security personnel and supervisors were deployed.

A CCTV camera was installed in each examination hall. Over 1.38 lakh CCTV cameras monitored 95,000 halls, and the Prime Minister even spent 45 minutes at Delhi airport to ensure students were not stuck in traffic jams. Despite these precautions, nine fake candidates were caught in Bihar, seven of whom were medical students. There are a few things worth considering. First, when the exam was held the first time, 2.3 million students took the exam; this time, when the exam was rescheduled, 2 million students took the exam. The primary question is why more than two lakh students didn’t resit? Although reports say the exam was conducted successfully and no irregularities have been reported, trouble had already arisen when, after the first exam, the announcement of a rescheduled exam led to the suicide of at least 15 young students across the country.

The exam was initially held on May 3rd. The paper leak issue led to the cancellation. The investigation was handed over to the CBI. This time, students were sent to different exam centers, and the exam was also conducted simultaneously at centers set up in 14 foreign cities. Dozens of central government ministries, along with state governments and agencies, worked together for 37 days. Declarations are being made that the exams were successful, but the true success will only be known when the results are announced.

Educationists wonder why, after so many years, the exam-conducting problem has suddenly become so severe that the Air Force and hundreds of thousands of police forces were deployed to conduct the exams. Is this root cause not a lack of trust in the current education system? Today, a few educational academies that were contracting the exams have been accused of paper leaks. Hasn’t this brought the entire teaching community under suspicion? Why was there so much distrust of students that their exam centers were changed and they had to travel far away to take the exam? Couldn’t exams be conducted in the local centers where the students belong? But this lack of trust and the perception of everyone as a follower of shortcuts and back alleys is at the root of this problem.

The simple solution is to trust those on whose shoulders the nation’s education rests: the teaching community and the students who work hard to fulfill their dreams. The biggest lesson learned from this year’s NEET exam is that if exams are conducted conveniently and with the support of a permanent machinery, there will never be any inconvenience. Adhocism towards outsiders is also contributing to this problem.