NTA's Repeated Failures Continue; UGC-NET Re-Exam Ordered After Major Errors

Thiruvananthapuram: Nearly 1.5 lakh students were affected by serious lapses in the UGC-NET examination, prompting the National Testing Agency (NTA) to schedule a re-examination after being forced to acknowledge the major errors.

As many as 67 questions in the English question paper were identical to those from the previous year’s examination. Questions from the 2024-25 examination were repeated this year without even changing the options. Old questions were also repeated in the Commerce paper. In Sociology, some questions were generated using AI, which also resulted in major errors. The re-examination is expected to affect the academic calendar.

Students began raising widespread complaints and staging protests after the answer key was released. Following this, the NTA constituted an internal committee to investigate the complaints. The re-examinations for English and Commerce will be held on September 9, while the Sociology examination will be conducted on September 10.

The NTA conducted the UGC-NET examination in 87 subjects during the last week of June for eligibility for Assistant Professor posts, Junior Research Fellowship and PhD admissions. The decision to conduct the examinations again came after complaints of major errors in the question papers were confirmed.

The major complaints included factual errors, spelling mistakes, translation errors, mistakes in the names of books, ambiguous answer options and repetition of questions.

Serious irregularities, including question paper leaks, have become frequent in examinations conducted by the NTA. Despite repeated failures, the Central government has continued to protect the agency.

SFI has demanded that the NTA be scrapped in view of the repeated irregularities and errors. The organisation said it would launch a nationwide protest against the NTA’s failures, which it alleged were damaging the future of students.