No NEET answer, but time to make merit matter again

It’s fair to say that NEET, the national-level medical entrance exam, has become a mess. Allegations of paper leaks, mismanagement of centres, unfair marking schemes, mathematically improbable result patterns abound. This is not only stressful to the millions who took the exam, but to those planning to take it in the coming years.Even with no irregularity, Indian entrance exams are already intensely stressful. Long after one has stopped being a student, the recurrent nightmare is usually to do with an exam. NEET is extremely competitive. Some 23 lakh students took NEET-UG this year, aiming to get one of the approximately 50,000 seats in government medical colleges. This makes it a rejection rate of 97.8%. There are some more seats for private medical colleges, but they are a) not as prestigious and b) are expensive to study in, sometimes costing crores (compared to a few lakhs for government ones). Even including private colleges, total medical seats cap out at a little over 1,00,000.The big fight is, however, for government seats, or to obtain one of the top 50,000 ranks. Imagine the value of obtaining this top rank in NEET. Ignore all morals, merit, hard work. Let’s just go into pure greedy, shameless, crony-capitalist mode. What if you could auction and sell those top ranks? How much do you think they would sell for? You save in crores given the lower fee at government colleges. There’s higher prestige. You avoid the stress and hard work of preparation and save the coaching fee as well. Perhaps these top ranks could be sold off, in a greedy pure capitalist world, for Rs 3 crore each. So, for the top 50,000 ranks, we are talking about a potential Rs 1,50,000-crore revenue opportunity annually, if we were ready to sell our souls. This is why there is a massive incentive for things to go wrong. It’s the same story with other entrance exams — the money to be made in rigging them is massive. In a nation that has rarely prioritised merit and ethics, is it really surprising that a mini industry has come up to make money off these tests?When did we care about fairness, integrity and merit anyway? It isn’t how our politics works which is almost always about identity — some mix of religion, caste, regionalism and nationalism. So why care now? Why bother with silly things like merit? Why not sell everything? If we can have crony capitalism, where certain corporates who pay up have an advantage, why not let rich families buy seats for their kids?But it bothers us, doesn’t it? It makes us sick actually. Mass-level cheating in our few, extremely difficult but supposedly honest exams shakes us to the core. It isn’t just about students. It is about all of us, who suddenly feel nothing is sacrosanct, nobody can be trusted and, finally, it is only power and money that talks. Exams like NEET, JEE, UPSC are the only outlets in our country for young people to jump class. For someone to get a better life of dignity for themselves and their parents. They are extremely hard, but at least carry hope in a country with few avenues to rise.Hopefully, this NEET fiasco wakes us up. It makes us realise that values such as integrity, honesty, merit, and respect for hard work are values that need to be guarded. Humans are flawed. If there is massive opportunity to rig and cheat, some people in the system will do so. But we as citizens must stay vigilant. Students are the victims here but here’s a bit of feedback for them. They may not like to hear this, but over the last few years, the average Indian student has disconnected from politics. Lost in their Insta reels, YouTube videos, memes, OTT series and video games, they say, ‘Who cares, politics doesn’t affect me. Let boring oldies do it.’ No, you must care. For if you don’t, you will suffer the most. How did NEET finally attract national attention? When enough students finally kicked up a fuss. Stay engaged in your democracy. Don’t check out. Don’t think voting every five years and ignoring national issues otherwise is enough. Your regular vigilance is needed to keep everyone accountable.For this specific NEET situation, all problems lead to National Testing Agency (NTA) which conducts these high-stakes exams without good systems in place. With lakhs of crores in malpractice possible, we deserve a more foolproof organisation. For exams like NEET, centres must be reputable and secure. If enough good centres are not available, exams can be phase-wise, like elections. For this, multiple question papers can be set of equal difficulty and scores normalised. Only a tight circle should be aware of which exact paper will be used on exam day. Conducting an exam with integrity is possible but it depends on those conducting it. Leaking papers is essentially selling of seats. It is selling Indian merit, honesty and hard work. It is selling India’s soul. We can’t let that happen.