Don’t mess with exams

The Supreme Court has paved the way for declaring the results of Neet, the medical and dental entrance test. Over a million students will soon know where they stand in securing coveted medical seats across India. Over 10.5 lakh students took the test in English or Hindi, for which the CBSE-set question papers were the same, while 1.5 lakh took it in eight regional languages. The Madras high court stayed the results, saying the question papers were not uniform, and there were big differences between the English/Hindi and Tamil papers. The Supreme Court was, however, annoyed that the Neet schedule it set got diluted due to a high court stay on publication of results.

It’s hard to set a perfect test paper to satisfy all candidates in different languages. In Tamil Nadu, there’s also anger against Neet for various reasons, including the weakness of rural candidates in tackling such question papers as they can’t afford to take special tutorial classes for such tests. The state has also done little to help these students. It thus seems unfair to hold up the results of 12 lakh-odd students nationwide, and delay their academic careers, for the ostensible sake of a disadvantaged few.

The high court may have been playing to the gallery in stalling the results, much like the Delhi high court did with CBSE results. Tests help institutions choose candidates; delivering justice to the last man in line is not their aim. We hope the Supreme Court will also let Neet’s counselling and admissions process go on.