Kerala Assembly passes resolution against NEET conduct. BJP opposes anti-Centre remark

Kerala Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution urging the Centre to take "urgent and effective steps to reform the national examination mechanism and quickly restore faith in the system". The Resolution was moved by Higher Education Minister Roji M John under Rule 118 of the Assembly Rules and Procedure, which allows a minister to move a resolution related to a matter of public interest. 

"This resolution is being moved in the Assembly at a time when reports of question paper leaks, irregularities in the conduct of the examination, administrative and technical failures at examination centres, and evaluation discrepancies have aroused justifiable suspicions about the reliability, transparency and neutrality of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)," the minister read out from the resolution.  

"Frequent complaints, repeated investigations and ongoing court interventions have eroded public trust in an examination that serves as the gateway to the higher education dreams of students," the resolution said.

Significantly, the three BJP members in the Assembly did not reject the resolution in its entirety but wanted an amendment to a paragraph in the resolution that criticised the Central government. It was Kazhakuttam MLA and former union minister V Muraleedharan who spoke for the BJP in the Assembly.

The last line of the second paragraph of the resolution termed as "reprehensible" the failure of the Centre and the central agencies to "promptly acknowledge the problems and initiate remedial measures soon after grave failures and irregularities in the conduct of NEET came to light." 

Muraleedharan said that the Centre had taken strong action the moment the failures made by "persons appointed by the NTA" were revealed. He said a retest was conducted at the behest of the Prime Minister and the Education Minister. 

Speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan insisted that Muraleedharan table his amendment and refrain from making a political speech. 

Eventually, he complied and wanted the last sentence of the Resolution's second paragraph to be amended thus: "This Assembly extols the Centre and central agencies that quickly and effectively intervened in the failures caused by certain persons in the conduct of the examination." The amendment, not surprisingly, was rejected by the Higher Education Minister. 

The Resolution said the poor conduct of NEET militated against the principles of equal opportunity and social justice enshrined in the Constitution.

The NEET fiasco is not an isolated event, the Resolution said. "Other national examinations conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) like Common University Entrance Test (CUET), UGC-CSIR  NEET-UG and also examinations conducted by other central agencies like Staff Selection Commission and Railway Recruitment Board have also been riddled with issues like question paper leaks, postponements, cancellations, technical glitches, security failures and administrative negligence," the resolution said, and added: "Seen along with the irregularities reported in the conduct of the CBSE plus two examinations, it is clear that grave structural and administrative issues are inherent in the entrance and selection tests in the country."

The resolution said that the only way out is a comprehensive central law that mandates the installation of unbreachable security features at every stage of the examination process and an independent monitoring mechanism.

The resolution also said that it was important to seek the timely opinion of states while formulating policy decisions related to national-level entrance tests, as education fell within the Concurrent List. "A mechanism that would strengthen such discussions should be put in place," the resolution said.