A few days before the National Eligibility Test (NET) exam this year, I was wondering if I should even give it. One of my seniors told me, “NET hum scholars ke Eid-Diwali jaisa hai, hum sab isse har baar ussi zor shor se manate hain (NET is like Eid or Diwali for us research scholars, all of us celebrate it with the same gusto each year).”
This stayed with me as I arrived at the exam centre after a two-hour-long journey. A lane bustling with aspiring scholars in a part of Delhi that was slowly waking up. This neighbourhood of the city had evidently not seen so many ‘middle-aged’ students at the same time. One could see that in the way the old couple, who ran the local grocery store, was stacking students’ bags in their shop up for Rs. 20. This was the first time in years that the mode of paper changed from a computer-based test (CBT) to a pen-and-paper test. The CBT centres were in the middle of nowhere but had a whole organised business of storing valuables for prices that might go up to Rs. 100 even, only cash. Rs 20 for an old couple determined to work so hard in the morning seemed like nothing. Moreover, filling the familiar OMR sheet with a ball pen felt like a whiff of nostalgia.
Before entering the centre we were told that even pens will not be permitted inside. That’s when things started seeming weird. We were told that the NTA had arranged pens for all candidates. Everything seemed a little hostile, starting with the thorough frisking on entering the centre. Although that is a necessity, there are several practices at NET exam centres that seem justifiable at first glance but are actually quite absurd. After having given several of these exams over the years, I feel it is important to talk about them because it is not just the exam that requires an overhaul but also how it is conducted.
Photo: Author provided.
A routine practice at these centres is the distribution of brown tape, torn off by someone using their teeth, to fully cover one’s piercings on the ears as well as nose (see picture below). This extremely unhygienic practice is something that all NET candidates are used to. That day, this was followed by a loud instruction to flip open our hair in a corner. I saw hair bands strewn across tables and chairs at the entry. We were told to use plastic rubber bands instead of hair bands. That’s when things started feeling more unusual. Then, of course, there was the biometric process (which seems quite unnecessary) and the mandatory filling in of declaration forms by those who do not want to disclose their Aadhar details. I think most of us end up sharing our Aadhar details to avoid this hassle, adding to the stress of both students and authorities. No one has the energy to question; everyone just wants to get it over with.
As soon as I located my seat, cramped among others on furniture unsuitable for Class 12 students, for whom it was meant, let alone adults over 20 years of age, the odd feeling intensified. I start thinking about writing when I feel unsettled so my mind wandered to the idea of a subfield like the sociology of evaluation and I imagined writing about the spectacle of the NET exam. Little did I know that the spectacle would become even bigger with the news of the exam’s cancellation the next day.
My day dreaming – methods to calm myself down rather – was cut short by conversation among other candidates. They were talking about the intensity of heat in the classroom at 8 am and how it would be terrible for students coming in the next shift at 2 pm. There was also a discussion on how the CBT centres were better, as they had air conditions at the very least, and that could make up for the long distance one had to cover to reach them. The December 2023 exam saw a lot of technical glitches due to which candidates found themselves stranded at exam centres (located very far away from the city centre) almost three hours post the scheduled exam time. I believed this was the reason for making the switch to the pen and paper mode.
On the day of my exam, I could not help but notice that the candidate sitting behind me took a couple of papers from the examiner as soon as they entered the class. I did not think too much about it then, but a few days after the cancellation of the paper, and with more news about paper leaks, I realised that it was probably the admit card and a question paper for the candidate. I saw another candidate receive something similar from the invigilator. This was not the case with other students in the classroom.
In all these exams, the general practice is to collect the admit card as well as question paper from the students after the exam. That did not happen this time. I make no claims of definitiveness, but I can’t help but speculate about the events at the exam centre this time, along with the shift in the exam format, and connect them to the news of leaks and the subsequent cancellation.
The conversation around the cancellation of the NET exam is not just about malpractices in this particular cycle. It is incomplete without questioning the sudden switch in the mode of conduct, the practices at the exam centre, the nature of questions being asked and the newly introduced eligibility criteria.
The plight of research scholars, and academia in India at large, is what lies at the centre of this discourse. The NTA was brought in to take charge of the conduct of major exams like JEE, NEET and NET. With its implementation, these exams were to be conducted solely in online mode. The trend of computer-based exams (CBT) is relatively new but is widely prevalent. Prominent institutions like Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Delhi University (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and even the Indian Air Force conduct their exams in this mode.
Given that the NTA was created as a society and separate legal entity entrusted with conducting important examinations, its transparency and testing standards remain questionable. Moreover, with only 25 permanent staff positions and the rest of its functions outsourced to third-party agencies, one cannot help but question the identity of these agencies, their history of conducting tests, their trustworthiness and whether there is a redressal mechanism in place for cases of mismanagement.
Students, who appeared for the NET as well as NEET examination, have been protesting ever since the cancellations were announced and raising these questions. The protests are not just an expression of disappointment with the cancellation but also in the way that the exam itself is conducted. Instead of any answers or respite, these students were met with brute force and detentions. The call to ‘Scrap NTA’ is also a call demanding the overhaul of the education system of India that the much touted New Education Policy (NEP) has failed to do.
The pandemic set many of us back in our academic schedules, causing delays in admission cycles (up to two years in some cases), a reduction in the number of seats (due to lack of funding and fewer vacancies among professors, as current students’ fieldwork was also delayed), and several delays in the conduct of examinations. With leakages and cancellations added to the list, the future of a lot of research scholars lies at stake. It is at moments like this when transitioning out of academia seems like the only option. For my scholars, it becomes an opportunity for their families to start exerting pressure for marriage. After dedicating so many years to a field, it is the politics of knowledge and valuation that discourages students from aspiring while creating opportunities for premium private universities to emerge. For most scholars, moving to foreign universities is not a viable option.
It took me more than a week after the cancellation to be able to put into words the jumla that the NET exam is becoming. However, it won’t be surprising if, when the re-exam dates are announced, all of us who are currently outraged will line up at the exam centres once again, as if it were Eid or Diwali, succumbing to a NET set by the NTA. What is this if not the perfect case study for the underdeveloped sociology of evaluation?
Prerna Vats is a PhD Scholar in Gender Studies at Ambedkar University, Delhi.
