NEET paper leak: can the Nilekani task force succeed?

Repeated paper leaks and technical glitches have marred the Indian education system in the past few months. Following nationwide protests against the NEET-UG paper leak, the Union government constituted a high-powered task force, headed by former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani, to recommend steps to make the country’s examination system leak-proof and technology-driven. Apart from Mr. Nilekani, the committee consists of former ISRO Chairman S Somnath, former IB director Tapan Deka, IIT Madras director V. Kamakoti, former Education Secretary Anita Karwal and logistics expert Amrit Lal Meena.

The task force has invited suggestions from the public and domain experts till September 13. The suggestions may relate to conduct and security of public examinations, examination design and assessment methodology, governance, accountability and institutional arrangements, prevention, detection and redressal of examination malpractices. It has also invited suggestions on the use of technology, including secure computer-based testing as well as creation and augmentation of examination infrastructure.

To discuss this topic, The Hindu will host a webinar titled, ‘How can the Nilekani task force succeed?’, on September 7, 5:00 p.m. The webinar will be moderated by M. Kalyanaraman, who heads the education vertical at The Hindu. Register now for free to ask questions and interact with the panellists. The three best questions will receive a free online subscription to The Hindu.

Balaji Sampath founded AhaGuru to create videos and technology solutions to improve Physics, Math, Chemistry and Biology learning for high school students as well as for competitive exams like IIT JEE and NEET. Through Association for India’s Development (AID) INDIA, Balaji’s team has educated over 2 million children from villages.

Rajeev Kumar is a former Professor of Computer Science at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, BITS Pilani, and JNU, and a former scientist at DRDO and DST. He also led admission reforms with transparency and well-defined processes, which led to improvement of the JEE exams.

Venkatraman Umakanth heads the business of Meta-i Technologies & HireMee as Chief Business Officer apart from the role of CTO at Technology and IT services firm Vee Technologies. Meta-i Technologies has worked with government universities, colleges, PSUs, and government bodies across India, handling highly sensitive examination processes— and in 25 years, has maintained integrity and fairness across the years.

(For any feedback or suggestions, reach out to us at education@thehindu.co.in)