Govt putting students' lives in jeopardy, lacks accountability: Kapil Sibal on NEET paper 'leak'

Former law and education minister Kapil Sibal accused the Centre on Saturday of being insensitive and putting students' lives in jeopardy by failing to ensure a foolproof system for the NEET.

He also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre of lacking accountability, as those at the helm of the National Testing Agency (NTA) are claiming that only a few questions, and not the entire paper of the medical-entrance exam, were leaked.

Expressing pain over what is happening to the country's examination system, Sibal pointed out that the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) pass percentage for the Class-12 exams has fallen from 89 per cent to 85 per cent.

He said students are very upset and the reason for the lower pass percentage is that the question paper was evaluated through a process of online screening, as teachers are not trained or used to evaluating in such a manner.

''This government functions for splashing news in newspapers. They cannot even handle the holding of an examination and they are playing with the lives of students.

''The (education) minister is not able to conduct the examination the way it has to be conducted and is putting the lives of students in jeopardy. The minister is experimenting with the lives of young students,'' Sibal told a press conference.

''Yours is an insensitive government,'' the Rajya Sabha MP said, adding that a number of allegations are surfacing regarding the conduct of the NEET (UG).

''Why is it that papers are leaked? Why can't you set up a foolproof system?'' he asked.

Sibal claimed that the bureaucrats responsible for conducting the NEET are giving the explanation that ''only some questions were leaked and the paper was not leaked''.

''Do they even know the meaning of leakage? It is shameful as 22 lakh students sat for the NEET and the government is playing with young students,'' he said.

Alleging that there is no accountability in the system, Sibal said, ''This government does not believe in accountability and even if you were to ask for resignation, it will not happen.''.

Noting that there are allegations and reports against people at the helm of affairs in the NTA, he asked, ''Who leaks the papers? There is a possibility of a network. Which is that network? Who are part of that network? Are teachers part of that network?''.

Demanding that somebody should investigate all this, the former education minister said if the Centre really wants to change the system, ''don't go for small people, but catch the big fish who benefit from it''.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) for admissions in medical courses held on May 3 was cancelled by the NTA recently amid allegations of paper leak. The matter is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a re-test is scheduled to be held on June 21.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)