India's 'NEET' medical exam scandal drives students abroad

For more than four years, Sanna had the same daily routine - wake up at dawn, study up to 14 hours a day, eat and sleep - all in an effort to crack a tough exam to get into one of India's premier public medical colleges.

But after two unsuccessful attempts, she has lost hope she can win a highly sought-after spot, especially after the national entrance exam was hit last month by allegations of irregularities, including paper leaks.

"I have zero confidence in this system. What is the point of slogging when others can get ahead by unfair means?," Sanna, 20, who asked to be identified only by her nickname, said by phone from the western state of Rajasthan.

Exam leaks are common in India, where millions scramble to get into top government colleges to secure degrees that can line them up for well-paying, stable jobs in a country grappling with an employment crisis.

Sanna was one of the 2.4 million people who took the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG - the only gateway for admissions into undergraduate medical courses in India - in May, competing for more than 100,000 spots in government and private colleges.

An unusually high number of students scored a perfect 720 score in the exam, sparking concerns of possible cheating, and irregularities in conducting and grading the NEET-UG.

Student groups have staged countrywide protests, launched social media campaigns and have gone to courts to demand investigations and a re-test.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) which administers the test said in a statement that there were isolated cases of cheating, but has denied paper leaks and said "the integrity of the examination was not compromised".

Despite decades of rapid economic growth, India has been slow to reform its higher education system in which aspiring medical and engineering students spend months, or even years, cramming for highly competitive entrance exams that often leave them burnt out and in debt, academic experts said.

Source : https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/study/indias-neet-medical-exam-scandal-drives-students-abroad/articleshow/111964573.cms