Parliament Panel Summons Exam Bodies, CBSE Officials Over NEET Row, OSM System

Amid the ongoing NEET-UG controversy and growing criticism of CBSE’s digital evaluation system, a parliamentary panel has summoned senior officials of the Ministry of Education, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Ministry of Health next week to examine concerns ranging from alleged exam irregularities to the rollout of On-Screen Marking (OSM) and the proposed shift to computer-based testing.

The 31-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, headed by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, has scheduled meetings on June 1 and June 2, according to a Rajya Sabha Secretariat notice issued on May 25.

The panel will hold discussions on June 1 with senior officials from the Higher Education Department, the Ministry of Health and the NTA on the use of pen-and-paper testing versus computer-based testing (CBT), along with issues related to NEET and the NTA.

On June 2, the panel will focus on school education issues and meet School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar and CBSE Chairperson Rahul Singh to review concerns over the use of On-Screen Marking (OSM) in Class 12 board examinations and the implementation of the three-language formula in Classes 9 and 10.

The move follows complaints from students and parents over technical glitches in CBSE’s post-result services portal and concerns over lower-than-expected scores under the new digital evaluation system.

These concerns intensified after CBSE declared the Class 12 results on May 13, with the overall pass percentage falling to 85.20 per cent from 88.39 per cent last year, marking the lowest level since 2019.

The meetings come against the backdrop of the alleged NEET-UG 2026 paper leak controversy and the Centre’s proposed examination reforms. The panel had earlier met on May 21 to review the ongoing probe into alleged irregularities and examine the implementation of recommendations made by the Radhakrishnan Committee constituted after the NEET-UG 2024 row.

During that meeting, the NTA informed the committee that it was considering introducing an upper age limit and restricting the number of attempts for NEET-UG candidates, marking a significant policy shift for an exam that currently has no such restrictions. Officials also indicated that the agency was planning a gradual transition to computer-based testing beginning next year.

According to officials briefed before the panel, the NTA received inputs regarding alleged malpractice on May 7, escalated the matter to central agencies the following day, and cancelled the examination on May 12. The re-test has been scheduled for June 21.

Representatives of the United Doctors Front and Dr (Major) Gulshan Garg, former orthopaedic surgeon of the Indian Air Force, have also been invited to present their views before the committee.

To address CBSE portal glitches, a four-member expert team from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur has been tasked with assisting CBSE in resolving issues related to the re-evaluation process and the OSM system.
The parliamentary review will also examine CBSE’s recent circular mandating the study of three languages, including at least two Indian languages, for students of Classes 9 and 10 from July 1. The policy expands a scheme already made compulsory for Class 6 students.
While CBSE later clarified that “no student will be barred from appearing in the Class X Board Examinations” for not meeting the third-language requirement, the move triggered confusion among schools and administrators.

Questioning the Centre’s approach, Mr Singh said, “The way the Ministry of Education is functioning is highly impractical. Take the NEET issue, for example. It is quite strange that the entire country is saying there was a paper leak, but the NTA is saying there was no leak. It’s a strange situation.”

“We have heard that they are maintaining that there was no leak. Then what happened? Why are they conducting a re-examination? OSM was used once in 2014 and was found to be impractical. In 2017, the University of Mumbai also implemented it and found it impractical. So when it has already failed twice, why are you experimenting with students across the country?” he added.